Venom Coursing
by Grey Wolf4
Summary: A companion story to SharclawKusanagi's Children of Evanglion. Michael 'Venom' Hansen is a member of FOXHOUND and now that he is a member and their strategytactical specalist new challenges await this veteran soldier.
1. The Mission Before

**Venom Coursing**

**Disclaimers**: I do not own Metal Gear though I do lay claim to Michael Hansen.

**Author's Notes**: This is my own Metal Gear to my own character Michael 'Venom' Hansen.

Prologue – The Mission

_**March 15th 2010**_

Michael went up to the office of General Carter Drake knocked on the door and an "Enter!" came out from the door, he entered and saw General Drake, a muscular man in his late fifties; his hair and beard were grey, and he had sharp brown eyes. Drake was a highly distinguished officer, a great soldier he was an extremly capable man.

"At ease Major." Said Drake "Okay, here's your mission." With a snap of his fingers his assistant turned off the lights and activated the projector.

"This is a satellite photo of an abandoned facility in Russia, it was formerly used by the Red Army, but we never found out what it was used for. However, we have noticed some strange activity recently and we believe that it's no longer abandoned."

"What kind of activity?" asked Michael noticing that the pictures were somewhat vague.

"We have reason to believe that a Metal Gear is being developed there." Drake replied.

"Metal Gear? But what-"

"That's a need to know basis and you don't need to know." Drake cut him off smoothly "Anyway your unit will drop near the facility. If there is a Metal Gear your orders are to secure it and if you are unable to secure it…destroy it."

"Yes sir." Michael replied keeping his reply even.

"Any questions?" asked Drake.

"No sir." Michael replied although actually he had quite a few which would VERY likely be answered with 'need to know basis and you don't need to know.'

"Good, your unit departs in two days. Dismissed."

Michael saluted and made his way out of Drake's office and made his way to the parking lot.

Michael arrived back home, it was a fairly nice house that he shared with his fiancé Maria Asagiri who was a computer programmer and Maria was there at home.

"Hi Michael!" called Maria, a beautiful young woman in her mid twenties, of Russian-Japanese descent with short brown hair and deep brown eyes.

"Hi Maria!" Michael said warmly as he kissed her deeply then looked at her and said "Listen I have to go in two days."

"Another mission?" asked Maria.

Michael simply nodded, he could never hide anything from her as he spied a book on the couch. Maria smiled "Do you remember the day we met?"

"How can I forget?" Michael replied with a smile "We met in the library…"

"Yeah we were looking for the same book 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' wasn't it?"

Michael nodded "And you were looking for it under 'The Moonlight Princess' if I remember correctly."

Michael remembered that day well they did indeed find under 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' they read it together and they became friends who shared an interest in literature and it eventually became something more…now they were engaged as of two months ago.

"So how long are you going to be gone on this one?" asked Maria.

"I'm afraid I have no idea." Michael shrugged.

"That's all right. Anyway I've just been called back to the office. I'll see you later." Maria hugged Michael.

"Okay see you later." Michael kissing Maria as she picked up her coat.

_**March 19th 2010**_

Aboard a military transport, Michael briefed his unit on the upcoming mission.

"Okay guys we're here to investigate possible nuclear weapons development at a supposedly abandoned facility; it was formerly a Research and Development facility for the Red Army back in the days of the Soviet Union. However, we have received intelligence reports that there has been some activity and if you look at these photo's taken by satellite, they show unusual activity that appear to be from possible nuclear weapons development, plus there is also other strange activity as these photos show."

"Good lord Major!" Lieutenant Harrington exclaimed as he looked at the satellite images, "Do you really think there's a Metal Gear being developed there?"

"Don't know, but the brass seems to think so. Our mission objectives are to secure it, and if we can't secure it, our orders are to destroy it."

"Um Major Hansen?" Sergeant Bill Mitchell, a tall muscular man with blond hair in a crewcut raised his hand. "How do we know that there are nuclear weapons?"

"I was told it was on a 'need to know' basis." Major Michael Hansen replied. "Any more questions?"

"What kind of security can we expect from the facility?" asked Sergeant Simpson a short stocky man in his early thirties.

"Intelligence has not been very straight with me, but the fences are barbed wire fences with security cameras at the gates. But since we'll be going in via a mountain we may yet see some guards. We could probably expect some laser guard systems but otherwise we could face some guards. Any more questions?"

There were none coming.

"Good let's go…"

Michael was standing inside the hallway of the largest building in the facility with a strange feeling of apprehension in the back of his mind. The infiltration had been too easy and there was something he didn't like about it. They had encountered no security systems and no guards. He had just sent Harrington, Simpson and Mitchell to check out the rest of the facility by squads.

Michael then turned as soon as he heard one of the men approaching.

"Sir! You better get a load of this!" exclaimed Corporal Reyes and Michael followed him into a room. It was a security room and on the floor were the bodies of 4 men; three of them had their throats slashed with their hands still on their sidearms and the fourth one had his head smashed against the wall; his neck was broken.

Michael decided it was time to check in on the others "Harrington, what's your status? Find anything unusual?"

There was no response.

"Harrington do you read me? Report your situation!"

Again there was no response and Michael did not like this one bit. He then switched to the next squad's frequency.

"Simpson, you read me?"

"Loud and clear" Simpson answered.

"What's your situation?"

"We've finished our sweep. Major we've found the bodies of some technicians; they've all been cut to ribbons and there's something weird about their bodies too."

"Okay, have you heard anything from Harrington?"

"No sir."

"You're not far away from where we last heard from him, so I want you to check up on him. It's probably just garbled communications though I very much doubt it."

"Roger that sir, we'll check it out."

Michael sighed; this was highly unlike Harrington. (_I better check up on Mitchell and see how his sweep of the bay is going.)_ "Mitchell do you read me?"

"Yes Major."

"How's your sweep going?"

"We've finished sir…"

Luke Simpson sighed as he made his sweep through where Harrington and his squad should be so far all they've found are bodies and he was wondering who did this.

"Hey Sarge! Its Forester." Said Corporal Rivers as he pointed to one of the bodies.

"Hey Forester! What-" Simpson cut himself off in mid sentence when Forester's head tilted back revealing his lifeless eyes, Simpson took a closer look and saw blood that was still coming from a slashed throat. Then Simpson looked around and found Dyer's body and saw blood pouring from his nose; he was clearly dead. Then he found Harrington's body…it was savagely beaten with blood all over his face and there were two empty, bloody holes where his eyes used to be.

Simpson looked out through a broken window and looked down and saw Danforth's body lying on the grass not moving.

Then suddenly he turned around and he saw something whiz by him and then felt a strange sensation in his throat. When he touched it, he saw blood on his fingers and gurgling sounds came from his mouth and the last thing he ever saw was a man in a black trenchcoat and hat, carrying a bloodstained chakram in his hand, smiling over him…

Michael looked over every computer the hard drives have been formatted and his troops couldn't find any disks. Not any that were intact anyway. This was proving to be a waste of time since all they had found so far were a lot of dead bodies. There was no one alive who was going to be talking.

"This was a big fat waste of time!" Cassidy complained. "We should just pull out of here."

"I'm beginning to agree." Michael muttered and sighed. There had been no status report from Simpson or Harrington and Mitchell's unit had not found anything.

"All squads check in." Michael ordered.

"Right here sir." Mitchell replied.

But there was no reply from either Harrington or Simpson's squads.

Michael was flustered; no one was responding at all to him, something just was not right. First Harrington disappeared, and then Simpson, but he had to check up on Mitchell's squad.

"Mitchell do you copy?"

"What's the problem Major?" Mitchell asked.

"We've just lost contact with 2nd and 3rd squads, heard anything?"

"Nope, not a thing."

"Okay keep your eyes open we're pulling out of here in fifteen minutes."

"But sir what about-"

Michael cut off calmly "We'll look for them but if we don't find them within that time we'll have to pull out. There's something wrong definitely wrong here stay alert."

"Understood sir!"

"Okay guys let's go!" Michael said as they left the computer room…

Bill Mitchell and his squad were in the bay, they'd be pulling out soon, that's what the Major had said, yet he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Harrington and Simpson's squad Its just as the Major had said, there was something wrong here.

_(Where the fuck are those guys?)_ Mitchell wondered as he looked behind him. (They were supposed to have been here by now!) And then he suddenly noticed a tall man in a dark trenchcoat with scars covering the right side of his face, approaching.

Mitchell raised his M-4 and fired but the man quickly rolled out of the way and threw something at him then suddenly Mitchell screamed in agony as the chakram took out his right eye. With his remaining eye, Mitchell saw the man approaching and desperately tried to reload his M-4.

He had just reloaded when the man had reached him…

Michael's squad had spent the past seven minutes scouring over and it was on the second floor did their search finally bear fruit…there were bodies everywhere, including those of Simpson and Harrington. All of them had either been beaten to death or slashed with some kind of edged weapon…

Michael then turned around and barely had time to duck as a chakram flew towards them killing his squad in one arc.

_(A Chakram? The Killer Ring? Whoever's using it is either a psycho…or a pro.)_ Then a head was tossed at him; it was Mitchell's!

Suddenly there was an explosion and Michael was thrown out of the window and onto the hard concrete. As he got up, he saw that the building was on fire. Michael clutched his head in his hands as he realized that everyone in his unit were all dead.

Michael painfully got up and headed for the extraction zone…

_**March 26th 2010**_

Michael sat on the sofa, reading one of his favourite books 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'; he loved literature. It had been three days since his unit was all but destroyed it will take him a while before he could recruit a new unit. Michael felt torn up inside because he was the commander of the men who had been killed and they were his responsibility. Never had Michael felt like such a failure.

"Michael are you alright?" asked Maria concerned for her fiancé.

"No, I'm not." Michael said, putting his book down on the coffee table "I'd drummed out for something that wasn't my fault and yet…"

"What is it?" asked Maria putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I was their commander… they trusted me with their lives and yet part of me feels like I let them down…at the same time I want to say that I did the best I could yet I can't." Michael said downcast.

"Michael didn't you tell me once that there is always that question 'could I have done more?'" said Maria.

"Yeah I did." Michael replied.

"Maybe you should listen to your own words." Maria offered.

"I'm trying to Maria. I really am." Michael said as he got up.

"I know." Maria replied as she threw her arms around Michael as he too returned the warm embrace as they parted "I'll be going to bed I've got work tomorrow."

"Okay." Michael said with a smile "I'll be with you in a minute."

As Maria left the room Michael sighed, (She's right, _maybe I should start listening to my own words.) _Then his thoughts came back to the man in black that had slaughtered his unit.

As soon as he had gotten back to the base, Michael had done some research on the man and learned that the man was an assassin known simply as Shade. But aside from the reports of the many people killed by him, Shade himself remained a mystery. Aside from a few photos taken, there was no substantial information on the man at all.

Michael shook his head and made his way to the back door and saw something move in the shadows. Suddenly a tall figure in black seemed to materialize out of the shadows. Michael instantly recognized the man as the assassin known as Shade, the man who had killed his unit.

"You!" Michael said assuming a fighting stance.

"Yes, I hate seeing a job undone. I've come to finish it." Shade replied with a smirk.

Michael quickly threw a punch at Shade, which he promptly evaded and then Shade countered by spinning his hand causing something to strike Michael sending him to the floor. Michael immediately got up but not before Shade attacked again; this time with a brutal back kick. Shade then spun his body, performing a rising spin kick then sent Michael crashing into the wall, cracking the plaster. But before Michael could react Shade deposited a descended drop kick that sent him crashing to the floor.

Michael tried to get up but couldn't, Shade stood above him and sneered "You know I expected a lot more from someone who's studied Martial arts and was a student of Heidern assassination techniques. Oh well…"

"Michael!" came a shout from the kitchen door, both men looked in that direction; Michael's jaw dropped it was Maria!

"Stay back!" yelled Michael.

Shade smirked and casually threw his chakram at Maria; Michael watched in horror as the chakram slashed around her abdomen with blood gushing out, she gasped and fell to the floor in a pool of blood.

"Maria…" Michael whispered as he watched Maria's body fall.

"Don't worry, you'll soon be joining her soon enough." Shade responded with a smirk as he pulled out a wine bottle from a small cabinet and poured it over the couch. He then picked up a lighter one of Maria's friends had left behind and set the couch ablaze.

Shade turned and promptly left by the back door while the fire began to spread quickly throughout the house. Michael coughed as the smoke spread through the house. Ignoring the smoke, he crawled to Maria. He was only a few inches from her before he passed out

Michael gasped as he woke up and an unfamiliar ceiling greeted his gaze. As he tried get up, Michael felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Easy." A nurse above him said firmly but gently "You were very lucky there, if Mr. Brockton hadn't gotten you out of the house you probably would have died. You inhaled quite a bit of smoke there."

"How long have I been here?" Michael asked.

"About two days." The nurse replied.

"Two days?" Michael breathed.

"I'll tell the doctor you're awake." Said the nurse as she walked out.

Michael lay back for a few moments while trying to remember what happened. After a few minutes, the memory slowly came back to him. He remembered Shade had shown up at the house and then the brief fight in which the assassin had easily defeated him. Michael was wondering what happened to Maria when the doctor came in.

"Ah! You're awake. I must admit, you're a very lucky young man." The doctor commented.

"Doctor what happened to Maria? Is she alright?" Michael asked, hoping that Maria was alive.

The doctor looked at Michael before closing his eyes and sighing and Michael knew what the doctor was going to say before he spoke.

"I'm really sorry." The doctor said gently and Michael could barely hear the rest, he could barely even breathe…

_**April 2nd 2010**_

Michael entered his new home, which was really a room in a filthy, roach infested motel, but it was better then nothing, it had been a few days since he was out of the hospital but for those few days he was barely able to move more from Maria's death then any injury he suffered fighting Shade.

Michael had just come back from a job interview, he was refused for some reason, the reason the interviewer was so, so…pathetic that Michael did not buy it for an instant, he simply just walked out in contempt.

_**June 1st 2010**_

Michael once again entered his roach infested apartment, he was having great difficulties finding a job and he was running out of money…

Just then Michael heard a knock at the door, sighing he went to answer wondering who it could be, it was an medium built man in his early-sixties, his hair and beard were grey and he had sharp blue eyes.

"Mr. Hansen?" The man asked in Russian, which was among the languages Michael spoke.

"Yes. What can I do for you?" Michael asked in Russian.

"Well now, I've got a job offer for you. May I come in?" the man asked this time in English.

Michael nodded and gestured for the man to come in and he sat down on a couch opposite an armchair where Michael sat down.

"Permit me to introduce myself, I'm Vladimir Bulgarin. I'm a general in the Russian army and I wish to hire you for a mission."

"What kind of mission?"

"I need you to break into a facility for me that is being held by a rogue faction of the Russian army; I need you to bring back vital data." Explained Bulgarin

"Why not send one of your own men?" asked Michael.

"I can't afford that faction finding out about my involvement in this. Thus, if anything went wrong and it was outsider that was captured we would then have plausible deniability. Do you accept this mission?"

Michael thought hard for a few minutes before coming to a decision. "I accept."

"Good, I have arranged for your transport." Bulgarin said as he took out a plane ticket and handed it to Michael. "I shall have my men meet you at the airport tomorrow."

"Understood." Michael replied as he took the ticket to Moscow.

After Bulgarin had left, Michael sighed. He really wasn't sure of this, but he was running out of options now. He then took out his suitcase and packed what little he had. Afterwards, he made sure to set his alarm so he would arrive at the airport on time; the plane would be leaving in the morning…

TBC


	2. The Mission

**Venom Coursing**

**Chapter 1 – The Mission**

**_April 4th 2010_**

Michael waited at the terminal of Moscow airport, according to what Bulgarin had told him, there was supposed to be someone there to meet him. Just then, he saw a large man about 6'6 with a very muscular build sitting on one of seats with his arms crossed. The man had short hair in a military cut and brown eyes; he looked in Michael's direction and then got up and approached him.

"Are you Michael Hansen?" the man asked.

"Yes that's me." Michael replied

"I'm Major Kerenzhikov, General Bulgarin sent me to get you." The man said.

"Alright, let's get going." Michael said simply as he picked up his carry on bag and followed Kerenzhikov to a waiting car outside. Kerenzhikov opened the back seat for Michael, who nodded at him in thanks, entered, and sat down. In the front passenger seat, Kerenzhikov told the driver to go...

Throughout the ride, it had been quite silent; neither the driver nor Kerenzhikov were particularly chatty, so Michael was pretty much left alone with his thoughts. It wasn't long before they arrived at the Kremlin or more accurately the Russian ministry of defence.

"We've arrived." Kerenzhikov announced.

Michael nodded, got out of the car and followed Kerenzhikov to an office, which read "General Vladimir Borisovich Bulgarin". They went in and saw Bulgarin at his desk as Kerenzhikov stood to stiff attention.

"Mr. Michael Hansen, I've brought him as you ordered sir." Kerenzhikov reported

"Ah hello again Mr. Hansen. I trust your flight was enjoyable." Bulgarin greeted Michael in a friendly manner. "Alright! Let's get down to business. I'm afraid we don't have much time..."

Bulgarin simply nodded his head at Kerenzhikov who turned on a projector, which showed a compound with one large building and some smaller ones and then spoke. "Alright, this is the facility I mentioned to you before. As I said earlier, it's under the control of a rogue faction of the Russian Army. They have stolen top secret data for a biological weapon which is being developed without government authorization."

"The facility is an old one but as befits its status as a laboratory developing top secret weapons it has a formidable security system..." Bulgarin explained as he showed diagrams of the buildings and explained their security systems.

"Any questions, Mr. Hansen?" Bulgarin asked Michael after he was done explaining.

"What exactly is the data, I'm supposed to look for?" Michael asked.

"Like I told you, data on a biological weapon." Bulgarin replied

"Biological weapon?" Michael blinked.

"Yes. Its code named the SURTUR virus; it has over 10 strains and the data contains 2 strains of the virus." Bulgarin said.

"But I thought biological weapons were prohibited by international law?"

"Yes, but they are just declarations not actual treaties my boy." Bulgarin replied with a humourless smile. "And besides, I'm certain whoever it is that's supporting the faction has a plausible loophole along with the money to get around those declarations."

_(Figures...) _Michael thought cynically then he asked, "What's the insertion method?"

"We'll drop you in a location near the facility, from there you will have up to 10 hours to gain access to the facility, retrieve the data, and reach the extraction point." Bulgarin replied.

"What exactly does this rogue faction want?" asked Michael

"They want to overthrow the government and re-establish the Soviet Union." Bulgarin replied quickly. "Anymore questions?"

Michael shook his head "None at the moment."

"Good, you'll depart in two days at 0700. Kerenzhikov will escort you to your lodgings." Bulgarin concluded nodding his head at Kernenzhikov.

"If you will come with me." Kernzhikov said as Michael followed him outside.

Kerenzhikov drove Michael to an apartment building not far from Red Square. As they drove Michael looked around an ancient city untouched by the Second Impact. A city that was still synonymous with the revival of Russia after centuries of domination by the Mongols and the Tartars. It had been the capital of Muscovite Russia for centuries until Tsar Peter I moved it to St. Petersburg and the Bolsheviks eventually moved the capital back to Moscow.

Moscow was still a city recovering from the economic disasters of 1992 and 1993 and the horrendously high crime rate was very evident. There were still signs of decay in the city, which was only just beginning to heal from the scars left by the corruption and the 'gangster economy' under the Yeltsin regime.

They soon arrived at an apartment building, and Kerenzhikov led Michael to an apartment on the 3rd floor. It was a small apartment, but Michael did not object since he was definitely not expecting any fancy accommodations.

"This is your apartment for the duration of your stay here. Your mission begins in two days; I will be there to get you." Kerenzhikov said.

"Alright." Michael replied as he put his bag down as Kerenzhikov turned and left the room.

**_April 8th 2010 22:00_**

Michael cautiously went through the tunnel he was told of during the short briefing before heading out. It was an old underground train tunnel that was lead him into the facility, and getting there was no picnic, especially as a few times he was either nearly detected or crushed by an incoming train. Fortunately he was able to avoid the security cameras as well as the trains without any incident.

It wasn't long until he reached the station that was connected to the facility. The station was littered with a bunch of old storage crates and barrels and the overhead lights were old and the overhead lights gave off only a dim amount of light. A couple of guards stood in front of the station's elevator, both armed with old, but fully functional assault rifles. They were wearing standard Russian Army uniforms, probably to avoid any suspicion from any of the passengers for the trains that passed by.

Michael hid behind crates and observed the guards. He could see that these men were taking their duties seriously and were ready for an attack at anytime. Suddenly one of the overhead lights to his left made a short crackling sound and went out.

The guards looked in the direction the light had gone out in, but after a few minutes their attention drifted back to their original position. Seeing his opportunity, Michael quietly made his way to the darkened area. When he reached it, he pressed his back against the wall, crouched down, and slowly made his way to the front using the shadows as cover.

As soon as he was facing one of the guards from the side, Michael drew his M9, carefully pointed it at the guard's head and pulled the trigger. The man immediately dropped to the ground unconscious. The other guard turned as his partner fell before getting hit in the forehead by another dart shot from Michael's gun and then dropped to the ground like a stone.

As soon as Michael was sure that the guards were asleep, he searched the guards' bodies but only found some ammo for his M9, a couple of bandages, and some half finished rations. Michael inspected the guards' rifles but saw that those had a user identification equipped to them so he just left the guns with there owners and then pressed the button for the elevator and got in once it arrived.

Michael then remembered his instructions; the data could be accessed from a terminal in a lab in the Sub Basement 1. He punched in the button for the floor and the elevator took him to the floor. Now the only problem was getting to the lab without detection. After slipping past a couple of guards he finally found one alone and near a closet as well. Sneaking carefully behind the man, Michael knocked him out and quickly stripped him of his uniform and put it on. Michael looked around the corridor to make sure the coast is clear, and then promptly dragged the unconscious man into the closet, where he promptly shut it and then picked up the mans rifle, which was fortunately not equipped with a user ID.

(_It's a good thing this one was wearing a mask.) _Michael thought as he put the guard's mask on. _(Getting to the lab shouldn't be a problem now. I just hope I find the right terminal to use.) _

**_April 8th 2010 23:00_**

Michael had to admit so far he was lucky; he had just reached the correct terminal and was currently downloading the data. But while searching, he found some things that just weren't right and didn't fit with what Bulgarin had told him, but there was no time to think about it now since the download was nearly complete.

When it had finished, Michael removed the disk, but as he did he heard an alarm and over the P.A. it could be heard "Intruder Alert, conduct security sweep of the Sub Basement 1 area. The intruder may be dressed as one of our men, proceed with caution." This was the signal to Michael that he MUST leave, but he knew he couldn't leave the way he came.

(They must have found one of the guards I knocked out.) Michael thought as he put the disk into his pocket. (That, or someone sold me out.)

Michael wasted no time in getting to the elevator, and after killing a few guards who had been unfortunate enough to be riding the elevator down to the floor he was on, Michael immediately got in and selected the supply depot floor.

As soon as Michael arrived on the chosen floor, he immediately made his way through to the garage on the floor. Luck was still on his side as he discovered a large supply truck that had just finished being inspected and was preparing to leave. Making sure that the inspectors weren't looking in his direction; Michael ran towards the truck and leaped into its trunk before hiding under a large tarp that had been carelessly thrown onto the floor. He then heard the words "Okay go!" from the outside and the vehicle drove out of the garage.

Michael waited until they were a reasonable distance from the base before he jumped out and promptly disposed of his uniform. With a sigh of relief that the mission had turned out successful, he made his way to the extraction point.

**_April 9th 2010 00:10_**

Michael knew his time was rather short, but he had just made it to the extraction point in time. There he saw Kerenzhikov and a squad of Spetznaz with him.

"We've been waiting for you, Hansen." Kerenzhikov said.

"I have the data, but tell me something first." Michael said in reply. "I overheard some conversations at the base and I've also looked at some other data. This group that you hired me to steal from wasn't a rogue faction, was it?"

Then he heard his codec beep and Bulgarin's face appeared on the codec screen

"How perceptive of you Mr. Hansen." He said with a grin.

"What the hell is going on here, Bulgarin?" demanded Michael knowing that even if Bulgarin answered him, he wasn't going to like what he heard.

"Well we required the data for a certain project that the government might object to, so, like I said before, I needed someone to get it for me who would give me plausible deniability if something wrong. Now if you would just hand over the data peacefully we might yet pay you." Bulgarin said.

"No!" Michael said coldly.

"What?"

"I refuse to give you the data!" Michael said knowing that it was obvious that they would kill him even if he did give them the data.

"How unfortunate." Bulgarin then switched the frequency to Kerenzhikov's. "Kerenzhikov, eliminate Hansen and take the data from him."

"Understood, sir." Kerenzhikov said and then turned to his men. "Kill him, but do not use automatic weaponry. We cannot afford to harm the data."

Kerenzhikov and his men fired, but Michael rolled behind a rock and fired with his AN-94 cutting down Kerenzhikov's men, but Kerenzhikov rolled towards the rock and grabbed at Michael and threw a punch at him, which Michael easily dodged. Michael then executed two punches while turning his body, and then slammed an uppercut right into Kerenzhikov's jaw. Kerenzhikov stumbled a little and then spat out a little blood before trying to attack again.

Michael saw through his enemy's attempt and leaped up and grabbed Kerenzhikov's head between his legs and then slammed him into the ground followed by an elbow drop to Kerenzhikov's head.

Kerenzhikov lay defeated on the floor but then Michael heard what sounded like clapping coming from a single person. He turned and looked at the remaining Spetznaz soldiers who were parting as someone came up to the front. Michael's eyes widened as he saw who it was.

"It's you!" Michael shouted as he recognized Shade, who now stood in front of him. "Shade!"

"Not bad, Hansen, not bad at all." Shade said with a grin. "I was a little surprised when I found out you survived my little bonfire. It seems whenever we meet each other, someone dies by my hand in your place. Too bad there's no one for that this time.

Shade wasted no further word and begins his attack with a flying kick which Michael dodged followed by then surge of dark energy which he threw at Michael with his free hand. As Michael leaped out of the way of the attack, the pocket in which he held the data disk was ripped open causing the disk to fall onto the ground. Ignoring the disk, Michael leaped into the air and then unleashed an aerial spin kick, which struck Shade back against a large rock.

"Impressive." Shade commented as he got up. "You're not a lion in battle, but at least you're no longer an insect. I find crushing insects to be terribly boring. Let's see if that luck of yours will hold out."

Suddenly Shade seemed to vanish and before Michael could blink, he felt a large impact as Shade's fist struck him hard in the stomach. Shade then lifted Michael up by the neck as if he weighed nothing at all and carried him over to a cliff.

"Farewell." He said and then without any other word Shade hurled Michael over the cliff and to the rocks below.

Shade then heard a groan behind him and saw Kerenzhikov get up from the ground. Shade then picked up the data disk and then handed it to Kerenzhikov.

"I believe this is yours." Shade said simply.

"Excellent work, Shade." Kerenzhikov replied as he took the disk. "I shall ensure that you get a bonus for this."

"As long as you remember to pay me." Shade said and then glanced back at the cliff he had thrown Michael from. (I wonder if he'll survive this one. If he does, he might prove to be much more interesting prey to kill then I anticipated.)

TBC


	3. Meeting Old Friends

**Venom Coursing**

**Disclaimers**: I do not own Metal Gear or King of Fighters and Riku 'Drakken' Hanabishi belongs to DarkFusion.

**Author's Notes**: Special Thanks to Darkfusion for his editing.

**Chapter 2 – Meeting Old Friends**

Michael found himself tumbling off the cliff and ended up striking a jutting rock formation before tumbling into the river below. The current was merciless as Michael tried desperately to grab onto something in attempt to pull himself to shore, but his hands grasped only air. As the current mercilessly pounded him even more, Michael's hand suddenly grabbed onto something that felt like a tree branch. Not wasting this opportunity, he immediately began pulling himself to wherever the branch led and was rewarded when he felt one of his hands touch firm and dry earth. Using as much strength as he possibly could, Michael pulled himself out of the raging river and rolled onto the riverbank.

Michael tried to get up but it proved to be a futile effort due to the large amount of pain from the injuries he had sustained from his fight with Shade along with the fall added to the fact he was completely exhausted from his ordeal in the river.

After a few minutes, Michael finally was able to muster up enough strength to get up and as he did, the pain if his wounds racked his entire body. Gritting his teeth in an effort to hold back the pain, Michael slowly started walking away from the river.

This proved to be a very taxing effort as Michael was breathing heavily a few minutes later. It wasn't long before his vision started to turn hazy and he staggered without any idea of where he was going before he finally collapsed onto the ground. Almost as soon as he did, he suddenly felt someone nudge him lightly.

"Mister! Are you alright?" A voice asked him and someone shook him a little.

Michael's reply was inaudible as he passed out...

Michael woke up with a start and he was yet again in a hospital but wasn't sure where exactly he was...

"Easy there young man." said the Russian doctor as he went over to Michael.

"Where am I?" Michael asked in Russian.

"Novosibirsk General Hospital, a group of campers found you yesterday and brought you here." The doctor answered. "I must say you're quite a lucky man; you've suffered some pretty bad scrapes and bruises."

"How long before I am discharged?" asked Michael who knew his injuries now left him vulnerable and sooner or later Bulgarin and his men were going to find him in this hospital.

"I need to do a few check ups, but you'll most likely be out by tomorrow."

Michael nodded in silent understanding and then the doctor left.

Later that night, Michael woke up the minute he heard a noise in the hallway outside his room. He immediately got out of bed and quickly arranged the pillows in the place he had been lying and then pressed against the wall near the door. Suddenly two men dressed in dark clothing burst in and fired their weapons at the bed.

Seizing the opportunity Michael kneed one of them hard in the stomach before slamming him against the floor and quickly turned to the other and then used his Steel Trap technique to send the hit man smashing through the window.

Michael found his clothes and changed quickly, and then wasted no time in getting out of the ward knowing full well that there would be more of Bulgarin's hit men in the area. He checked to make sure no one was waiting to surprise him outside his room before he dashed out and headed towards the stairwell. Suddenly a gunman burst out aiming his gun but suddenly a dark figure shot out of the shadows and the would be killer was sent flying down the stairwell.

Michael stopped and clearly saw the one responsible. He was a man in his early fifties with dark hair wearing an eye patch over his left eye, along with his usual off duty clothes and he was someone Michael instantly recognised "General Heidern!"

"Nice to see you too, Mike, but let's save the greetings for later." Heidern said. "Come on! We've got to get out of here! There are a few more of these guys!"

They rushed down the stairwell knocking aside the assassins that got in their way until they reached the lobby and rushed outside. Michael glanced back and saw more of the killers coming after them from behind to give chase. The two men wasted no time and rushed to a car parked in front of the hospital and they entered the back seat. The driver was a man wearing a dark vest, jeans, and a black cap on his head.

"Clark, get us out of here!" Heidern ordered the driver and they sped off down the road.

"Thanks General!" Michael said gratefully.

"Don't thank me yet, Michael." Heidern replied. "We've still got to get out of this town first."

They drove on for a bit until they saw a large roadblock sign was ahead of them. Clark didn't seem to notice it and kept on driving and started to slow down, as he got closer.

"Shouldn't we..." Michael was about to ask and then stopped when he saw two familiar figures standing at the signs.

The first one was an American male with black hair wearing a black vest and pants along with a red and black bandanna on his head. The second one was a woman with blue hair tied back to keep it from getting in the way wearing a green army uniform.

"Ralf, Leona, I see you've taken care of getting us our escape route." Heidern said.

"That wasn't all that hard, sir, we just had to persuade a couple of the good General Bulgarin's men to let us borrow this road." Ralf said with a grin, indicating some unconscious men lying over to the side of the road and then looked over at Michael. "Hey, Mike, what have you been up to these days?"

"Trying to stay alive for now. Glad to see you're doing well, Ralf." Michael replied and then looked over at Leona. "You too, Leona."

"Think nothing of it." Leona answered. "It's the least we could do for an old friend. Now let's just concentrate on getting the hell out of here before Bulgarin sends more hit men after us."

They drove for a while until they arrived at a hotel in an old town. General Heidern spoke to the man who seemed to own the place before they went to a room and made sure to lock the door behind them.

"So how did you guys find me?" Michael asked as everyone settled in.

"We heard you had a meeting with Bulgarin, then I found out you were at that hospital." Heidern replied. "And don't worry, the owner of this hotel is a good friend of mine so we're safe here for the time being

"Thanks again." Said Michael

"No problem. What happened what did your meeting involve?" asked Heidern

"Well..." Michael began and explained what happened, his meetings with Bulgarin and the subsequent mission.

"I see..." Heidern said quietly "Well we had a similar situation..."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"We were also given an assignment by your former employer." Heidern answered. "Bulgarin had asked us to get him some information on the developement of some advanced weapon. What kind we don't know."

"That's not like you, General." Michael commented. "Usually you'd have looked more into the assignment."

"The whole thing wreeked of a trap, but we didn't have much choice but to take the assignment." Leona spoke and looked at Michael seriously. "Michael, you remember your last mission with the army where you and your team were trying to discover information on a new metal gear?"

"Of course, but all the data was destroyed." Michael answered. "What does all of that have to do with this?"

"It seems Bulgarin has some connection to it." Leona replied. "We confronted Bulgarin about it, even though we didn't get any real information on the metal gear."

"Did you find anything out from Bulgarin?"

"No." Heidern spoke. "We went to the rendezvous point to meet with Bulgarin, but we had a surprise waiting for us when we got there."

Flashback:

General Heidern and Leona stood in an abandoned factory talking to a man in black.

"Where is Bulgarin?" Heidern asked the man dressed in black who was meeting them instead of Bulgarin.

"I'm afraid the general has more important things to attend to at the moment." The man answered. "I was instructed to recieve whatever information your group was able to obtain and deliver it to the general."

"Unfortunately we weren't able to find any significant information on the weapon your boss was talking about." Heidern said.

"That's too bad...Oh well, the general instructed us to give you your reward as promised." The man then smiled. "Your eternal reward." He then snapped his fingers and suddenly a squad of Russian soldiers burst out of their hiding places and pointed their guns at the two of them.

End flashback...

"Fortunately, we figured something like this would happen, so Clark and I had to intervene and give those guys a lesson in manners." Ralf spoke. "After that, we found out about what happened to you and came tp give you a hand."

"Wonder if this is a coincidence." Michael wondered out loud.

"Maybe or maybe not." Heidern replied "Anyway we should hold up here for the time being. At least until we can find out more on this situation."

Three days later Michael was walking down a street carrying a bag of food he had bought for everyone, when he heard gunfire up ahead. Quickly reaching for his weapon he looked around the corner.

A young boy with long black hair, dressed in a red t-shirt, brown jacket, and dark jeans was fighting a group of armed men in black uniforms. A few other men in black were lying on the ground unconscious. The boy effortlessly dodged an incoming blow and delivered a sharp kick into his opponent's stomach and quickly turned around and threw a throwing star shuriken he had kept concealed up his sleeve at one of the other hit men who was about to shot him. The man dropped his gun as the young man's shuriken struck his upper arm.

As the boy was fighting, he didn't notice a man in the window of one of the buildings behind him point a sniper rifle at him.

"Look out!" Michael warned.

The boy immediately realized the danger from the sniper and leaped out of the sniper's firing range as the sniper fired at him.

Michael quickly aimed his USP, fired it, and caught the sniper with a shot to the head,and then shot at the other men, who were surprised at the sudden back up, bringing them down one by one as the boy quickly finished off the other hit men. When the hit men had all been eliminated, Michael turned to the boy.

"Follow me!" Michael shouted; the boy nodded and they quickly fled from the scene.

When they were near the hideout, Michael took a closer look at the young man he just saved. He was of Asian decent and looked to be about 15-16 years of age. He had a very friendly look about him and grinned at Michael in gratitude.

"Thanks a lot for your help back there, man." The boy said gratefully. "You really saved my life back there."

"Anytime..." but their exchange was suddenly interrupted by Ralf and Clark

"Hey Mike, you sure took your sweet time!" Ralf said and then they both took note of the young man's presence.

"Who's your friend?" Clark asked looking at the young man.

"He was fighting with some of Bulgarin's men." Michael answered and looked at the boy. "What's your name anyway?"

"Riku. Riku Hanabishi." The young man answered and looked at the three men in the room. "How do you guys know about Bulgarin?"

"Let's just say we have a quarrel with him." Clark replied. "What's your business with him?"

"I was assigned to spy on him." Riku answered. "Unfortunately, I was caught and I was trying to escape from those guys. They've been after me for two whole days."

"Why would whoever it is you work for send a kid to...?" Ralf began.

"He's not just a kid, Ralf." Michael spoke. "He's a ninja, or at least he uses ninjutsu as part of his fighting style."

Riku looked at Michael with an interested expression on his face.

"You're right about my being a ninja." He said. "You must know another of my kind to tell that."

"Yes, she's a good friend of mine." Michael replied. "So..." He was then interrupted as Leona and Heidern entered the room.

"Who's this?" Leona asked when she saw Riku.

"Someone Michael rescued from Bulgarin's hit men." Ralf answered. "His name is Riku Hanabishi."

(Hanabishi...) Heidern thought. (I've heard that name somewhere before, but I can't remember where or when.)

"According to what he's told us, this kid was sent to spy on Bulgarin, but was caught." Ralf continued.

"That was due to faulty leadership on my side." Riku spoke. "So who are you guys anyway, mercs?"

"You could say that." Heidern answered. "My name is General Heidern, the woman next to me is my adopted daughter Leona. The other two men are Ralf Jones and Clark Steel."

Riku's eyes widened considerably as he instantly recognized those names.

"You're the famous Ikari Team?!" He exclaimed. "Gosh, I never thought I'd meet people like you in a place like this!"

"You've heard of us, I see." Leona spoke.

"You have quite a reputation." Riku replied. "I must say that I'm truly honored to meet such amazing fighters."

"Thank you, but could you explain what your involvement with Bulgarin is?" Heidern and then stopped when he remembered. "On second thought, you'll have to tell us later. Since Bulgarin's men are getting this close to us, we'd best get going. You're welcome to come with us if you want, kid."

"General, are you sure we should take him with us?" Ralf asked.

"We can't afford to leave him behind now." Heidern answered. "Besides, this kid looks like a formidable fighter for his age. He might be useful." He then turned to Michael. "Michael, you're going to be in charge of him."

"Of course, General." Michael replied and turned to Riku. "Is that all right with you?"

"Just fine, Mr..." Riku then smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot to ask what your name is."

"It's Michael Hansen." Michael replied and shook Riku's hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"The same here, Hansen-san." Riku grinned as he shook his new friend's hand.

"Just Michael, please."

"Okay, Michael. So where are we going?"

"You'll see when we get there." Leona spoke and turned to Heidern. "Shall we get going now?"

"Yes." Heidern answered. "Everyone, pack up and let's head to the destination."

Within a few minutes the room was completely empty, as if no one had been there, and the Ikari team, Michael, and their new traveling companion, Riku, were long gone.

TBC


	4. Knowing

****

Venom Coursing

Disclaimer: See previous disclaimers.

****

Chapter 3 – Knowing

As Michael and the others arrived at the new hideout with Riku in tow, when they arrived they went into a living room.

"Alright before we do anything, we need to decide what to do." Heidern said and then looked at Riku. "It would also be a good idea for you to tell us about your involvement in all of this as well, kid. Given the circumstances, it would probably be best if we work together on this."

"No problem at all, sir." Riku replied. "I'll explain once we get settled in. Is that alright with you?"

Heidern nodded and the whole group then proceeded to unload their equipment and belongings.

"Alright, Riku, what's your involvement with Bulgarin?" asked Michael as they settled down.

"Well, I've been sent on a mission from FOXHOUND, that's the name of my group, to spy on General Bulgarin." Riku answered. "We had received reports of some project called WOTAN, and I was sent to aid in investigating the matter."

"WOTAN?" Clark asked.

"The code name comes from the Germanic name of the Norse God Odin." Michael answered him and then turned back to Riku. "But enough of that for now. So Riku, can you tell us anything about this project?"

"Not much, I'm afraid." Riku replied. "All I know only that its some kind of experimental weapons project. You guys got any info on this?"

"Riku listen…" said Leona turning to her adoptive father who nodded his approval and they began telling Riku of their own experiences with Bulgarin and then Michael told his own story. It was during the halfway point of his story that Michael realized something and his eyes widened.

"New experimental WOTAN be the code name of a new Metal Gear?" Michael thought out loud.

"Of course! This is beginning to make sense!" Heidern said as he realized what Michael was saying. "Not only in the way all of this fits together, but originally, technology for previous Metal Gears came from Russia."

"Now that you mention it, I also heard about some other project called SURTUR during the mission, but I don't know much more than the name of it." Riku spoke. "However, from what I've been able to gather, I can say for sure that it's somehow in conjunction with WOTAN, along the name of the project director. Professor Ivan Korzhakov."

"Ivan Korzhakov?" Michael muttered "I've heard about him somewhere…"

"Who is he?" asked Leona.

"I don't know much about him, I'm sorry to say." Michael shrugged. "I only know that he's a genius scientist; particularly in the fields of Micro biology, nano biology, genetics and virology."

"Well then, how about we pay the Prof. a visit?" Ralf asked and turned to Riku. "Hey Riku, you got a location on him?"

"Yeah, his residence is actually nearby in a small town in Siberia." Riku answered. "I was originally going to head there after I'd gotten as much information from spying on Bulgarin, but you know what happened..."

"Well, General, do you think this is a good idea for our next course of action?" Clark asked, turning to Heidern.

"I couldn't really think of a better one." Heidern answered and then got up out of his seat. "Alright, let's move out."

As they prepared to leave, Heidern turned to Michael.

"Michael, do you have a codec?" He asked.

Michael nodded then he turned to Riku, who also nodded.

"Good, if you need to contact us, my frequency is 187.51, Leona's is 174.11, Ralf's is 181.50 and Clark's is 182.05." Michael said.

"No problem." Riku replied. "And if you need to contact me, my frequency is 107.89."

"Alright then, let's head out."

The drive took hours, but they eventually arrived at the address, which was a large and old house that was in the center of the Siberian town. The group cautiously took their positions, quietly surrounding the house. When they did, Michael looked at the house through binoculars and noticed two men. One was standing just outside the front door of the house the other was in the backyard; both of the men were carrying automatic rifles and were looking around carefully. Michael suddenly heard his codec beep.

"What's the situation Michael?" Heidern asked as his face appeared on the codec screen.

"There are two men that appear to be guarding the place." Michael answered. "Judging from their appearance, they're probably bodyguards. Apart from Korzhakov, I'd say that they're the only ones in the house."

"Alright, that gives us the perfect opportunity then." Heidern said. "Contact Riku and tell him to take care of the guard in the front. Leona will handle the other one."

"Understood." Michael replied and proceeded to contact Riku.

Riku walked around the house keeping an eye the bodyguard out front as he came out of the front door. When he was sure that the guard was going to stay where he was, Riku walked casually towards the guard, who immediately pointed his rifle at him.

"Freeze!" The guard commanded and Riku raised his arms into the air. The guard then walked towards him, and as he did, Riku suddenly vanished. The guard immediately looked around to see where the ninja had gone, only to be tackled at his blind side and shoved against the wall.

"Let me guess, this is your first day on the job, right?" Riku asked, holding the man firmly against the wall with his right arm, and then reached to his pocket with his free hand, drawing out two senbon needles.

"Prissy bastard…" the bodyguard bitched but was cut off by Riku who rendered him unconscious with a stab to certain pressure points in his neck, using his Wyvern Sting technique.

When he was sure that the guard was unconscious, Riku turned his codec to the appropriate frequency.

"This is Riku; I've taken care of the guy in front." He reported.

"Leona here, I've taken care of the other one." Leona's voice reported just after Riku.

"Alright, we're going in." Heidern said.

Michael made his way into the residence, with the others close behind him. They were checking to make sure that there weren't anymore guards in the house. A few minutes later, Michael came upon a room that looked like a study. He cautiously went into the room and saw an average sized man with Brown hair and eyes in his mid forties working at a computer. He was wearing glasses and a typical lab uniform.

"What is it you want Pushkin? I'm busy!" The man snapped, but when he turned around and took notice of Michael and the others, he saw that the entrants weren't who he was expecting.

"Who are you!?" The man demanded, quickly turning off the computer. "What do you want!?"

"You are Professor Korzhakov?" Leona asked.

"Yes that's me, who are you?" Korzhakov snapped.

"We'll be asking the questions, Poindexter!" Ralf replied.

"We've got some questions to ask you Professor, about a certain project of yours called SURTUR." Heidern added soft menace evident in his voice. "I strongly suggest you answer them, if you'd like to keep your health."

"What makes you think I'll tell you anything?" Korzhakov sneered.

"Oh but I think you will." Heidern replied.

"Torture won't work on me." Korzhakov said arrogantly. "I've had the appropriate training to resist it."

"Care to put that to the test?" Heidern asked in reply.

Korzhakov hesitated, small beads of sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"General, if you like, I could get the answers out of him." Riku offered.

"How would you do that?" Heidern asked.

"It's a bit complicated to explain, but this method won't be as messy as torture would." Riku answered. "It might even be more successful."

"Very well, then." Heidern replied and then turned to Ralf and Clark, who nodded and then proceeded to restrain the professor.

"What are you going to do?" Korzhakov asked Riku as he walked up to him.

"Oh, nothing much." Riku replied with a friendly smile. "I'm just going to show you something, and all you need to do is watch." Riku then pressed his hand together and muttered. "Rui."

Korzhakov's face was the same for a moment, and suddenly his expression became a mask of fear and he started thrashing around screaming.

"NO! NO! KEEP AWAY FROM ME!!" He screamed in terror, his whole body shaking in fear.

"Damn it!" Ralf swore as he and Clark fought to keep the terror stricken scientist from breaking free. "What the hell did you do to him, Riku?"

"I'll explain in a moment." Riku replied and then focused his attention to Korzhakov. "Well, professor, are you in a talking mood yet? When you are, I'll make it go away."

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!!" Korzhakov shouted his voice desperate. "I'll tell you whatever you want, just take it away, please!"

"No problem, but before I do, I want you to keep in mind that if you lie about a single thing, I'll call it back." Riku warned. "And this time it will stay permanently."

The man's face paled considerably, but he nodded to show he understood.

"That's a good boy." Riku said with a smile and then made a gesture. He then turned to Heidern. "He's all yours, sir."

"So what did you do to him?" Clark asked. "I've never seen anyone do that before."

"I just used a little genjutsu trick that showed the good professor over there what he feared the most." Riku answered. "It's a bit too complicated to explain the jutsu, but it is much more affective than torture is."

"Alright, Korzhakov, start talking." Heidern ordered. "What is SURTUR supposed to be?"

"It's a type of biological weapon designed using several strains of viruses." Korzhakov answered, glancing at Riku nervously. "It's quite deadly, and an amount no larger than a baseball could turn a whole city into a graveyard."

"Why would you make something like that?" Riku asked.

"Originally, the Soviet Union gave me an opportunity to practice my science to create SURTUR, and Bulgarin took over sponsoring me when the last Soviet splinter factions stopped supporting my research." Korzhakov said with a slight smile. "Naturally I wouldn't waste such a fine opportunity."

"You mean you volunteered to make something that can kill God knows how many people?!" Riku exclaimed.

"So, what's your point, boy? The earth is populated by billions of people; I'm sure that a few billion less as a result of SURTUR won't make any difference. After a few years, I'm sure the number will be replenished, but a true travesty would be not to create SURTUR and put it to use."

"All in the name of science, I suppose." Riku shot a murderous glare at Korzhakov. "You make me sick."

"That will be enough." Heidern said firmly and glared at Korzhakov. "Just answer the rest of our questions, and keep your views to yourself." He then turned to Riku. "And Riku, just listen and don't talk to him."

"Yes, sir." Riku replied.

"Now tell us this." Heidern ordered Korzhakov. "What is WOTAN supposed to be?"

"It's…well, it's…" Korzhakov stammered, not sure whether to tell them the truth or not.

"Is it a new type of Metal Gear?" Michael asked.

"How did you know that?!" Korzhakov exclaimed.

"We're the ones asking the questions, professor." Leona reminded him. "Judging from your reaction though, it's painfully obvious that Michael's theory was correct. So what's SURTUR's connection to WOTAN?"

"WOTAN is to be equipped with SURTUR in order to use it as its main assault on enemies." Korzhakov replied. "It's nearly finished being constructed."

"How much time till it is?" Heidern asked.

"Soon enough, my friend, soon enough." Korzhakov grinned.

"Be more specific." Heidern growled. "When will it be completed?"

"In at least a week, maybe a few days more, after which, it will immediately be equipped with the equipment to use SURTUR."

"Where is it being constructed?"

"Well, it's…" Korzhakov began and then suddenly swung his head back, striking Clark in the face, causing his grip to loosen. Wiggling out of Ralf's grip, Korzhakov made a dash for the window, and crashed through the glass. He then ran to where his truck was parked, got in, and quickly drove out of the driveway.

"Shit! He got away!" Clark swore.

"Maybe we can still follow…" Michael began to suggest, but then stopped when he heard the sound of approaching vehicles.

"I'll check it out." Riku volunteered, drawing out a kunai shuriken and walking out of the room.

"I'd better come with you just in case." Michael said, following Riku.

Michael went with Riku to investigate the noise they had heard outside and saw a group of Spetznaz and a tall brown haired man in his mid forties with brown hair and a neatly trimmed goatee wearing the uniform of a Russian Army Colonel.

"Well now Hansen, fancy finding you here." The man smirked then turned on a radio "Severin here, General, we've located Hansen and the Ikari Team and have also found that FOXHOUND punk…yes sir."

Severin then grinned at the two sadistically.

"I'm afraid that I have no choice but to terminate the lot of you." He said and then turned to his men who had their rifles ready. "You may fire when rea…" He was interrupted as Riku threw handfuls of small sizzling black balls in his direction.

There was suddenly a multitude of brightly colored flashes that covered the soldiers. Some of them cried out in pain as the sparks of the explosives burned them along with blinding their view.

"Fireworks?" Michael asked, sweat dropping.

"Call Heidern and tell him, I've covered our escape, and hurry I don't have very many of these!" Riku shouted.

"Got it!" Michael said in reply, and then ran back to the study.

"Bulgarin's men have found us." He said to Heidern and the rest of the Ikari team. "Riku's distracting them, now let's head out the back and quick!"

"Alright." Heidern said. "Let's go!"

Meanwhile:

Riku ducked behind a large piece of furniture as the Spetznaz soldiers were taking blind shots in his direction. The soldiers had multiple burns on their arms, legs, and faces from the fireworks he had thrown at them.

(It won't be long until those guys get their vision back, and then they'll know exactly where to aim those guns of theirs.) Riku thought as drew out a throwing star shuriken. He then threw it in the direction of one of the soldiers. The soldier who was struck screamed as the shuriken pierced his forehead before tumbling to the floor dead.

"Riku, everyone's out now!" Leona's voice called from the far back. "Get out of there!"

"I hear ya!" Riku shouted and then took out a red and black ball about the size of a grapefruit. He then touched the wick and it immediately caught fire. Riku quickly hurled it in the direction of the soldiers and dashed down the hallway to the back door. As he did he heard a loud bang, followed by a series of smaller ones, which were accompanied by the screams of the soldiers.

(Maybe that one was a little too much.) Riku thought as he ran out the door, but not before leaving a handful of caltrops behind for any of the soldiers who tried to follow. (…Nah.)

As Michael watched Riku rejoin the group, he suddenly remembered something.

(Come to think of it, how did Riku light all those fireworks so fast?) He wondered. (I don't remember seeing him with any matches or lighters…)

Meanwhile: Back at the House:

Severin and the surviving men of his unit were quickly applying a salve for burns on the ones that had been inflicted on them, especially by Riku's last firecracker. Almost half of Severin's goatee had been burnt off along with all of his eyebrows.

Severin gritted his teeth in pain as one of the blisters on his arms popped by accident.

(That FOXHOUND brat is going to pay for this; I will make sure of it.) He vowed as he continued to rub salve on his burns. (When we capture him, I will ensure he suffers considerably before he dies as payback for this humiliation.)

They made the move yet again until they found yet another hideout, an old abandoned church. The group again sat down, this time on the remains of some old warped pews, to think of another course of action.

"Well, that was illuminating." Michael commented to Riku dryly.

"Thank you." Riku replied. "I made the fireworks myself. My family owns a fireworks shop back in Japan, and making fireworks has become a hobby of mine."

"Getting into the family business, eh?" Leona asked.

"You could say that." Riku answered with a friendly grin and then turned to Heidern. "So what's next? Bulgarin probably knows about our meeting with Korzhakov by now."

"Well at least we now know for sure that WOTAN is a new Metal Gear and that SURTUR is some kind of viral weapon with roots back to the Soviet Union." Heidern spoke.

"But the little weasel didn't give us the location of the fucking thing!" Ralf cursed.

"Be that as it may, we've managed to get more information than we had a few days ago." Clark reminded him. He then turned to Heidern. "So what's our next COA?"

"Okay, Korzhakov said the minimum time they can complete WOTAN is by next week. We have at least that time to find out where it is." Heidern replied.

"Riku, have you reported to FOXHOUND about this?" Leona asked.

Riku sighed "Yeah, but Reese pretty much dismissed it all. He said that unless I had reliable proof to support this, he wouldn't send back up or report any of this to Campbell."

"Reese?" asked Heidern "Do you mean Matthew Reese?"

"Huh?" Riku blinked in surprise. "You know him?"

"Unfortunately…yes." Heidern said with a sigh, rolling his eye. "A complete incompetent when it came to commanding an operation. Not to mention that because of that man's actions, casualties, for the ones he was commanding as well as civilians, which could easily have been prevented, occurred."

"Yeah, that's pretty much the Reese we FOXHOUNDers know and loathe." Riku replied in agreement. "In fact, he's the reason I was being chased by Bulgarin's men yesterday."

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"Well, the spying part of my mission was going just fine, but Reese gave me some new orders to change that. For some reason, that feeble-minded fool decided to suddenly change the mission objective from spying, to assassination. I don't even think he even asked Campbell for permission to change the objectives just like that." Riku explained. "It's like he wants me to fail this mission."

"You mean you couldn't talk him out of it?"

"I tried, Michael. God knows I tried." Riku groaned. "I told him that I didn't have the equipment for that and the situation showed that I would need more time to gather more information on this since it was obviously important, but that jackass in charge just wouldn't listen to me and made sure that his orders stood. I think I'd have had better luck explaining common sense to a rock."

"So what did you do?"

"I gathered as much extra info as I could before I decided to give poisoning a try." Riku then looked at Michael and the others. "Alright, before you say anything, I didn't particularly like the idea of killing someone that way, but I didn't have many options that would guarantee my being able to escape once Bulgarin croaked. Unfortunately for me, I was somehow discovered and had to run for my life. I tried calling for backup, but Reese refused and said that it was my job to get out of the situation and not his. And that pretty much brings us up to yesterday."

"It seems he hasn't changed a bit." Heidern said with a shake of his head, and then walked to the door of the old church. "I'll head out and talk to some contacts I have in this area."

"I'll come with you, sir." Clark volunteered and followed Heidern out.

"So what do we do now?" Ralf asked.

"It looks like we have no choice but to wait around until they get back." Leona answered.

The four of them just sat there in silence until Michael spoke, taking out a small pocket chess set.

"Anyone feel like a game?" He asked.

"No thanks, man." Ralf replied. "You always seem to get me in checkmate after the first five rounds, and that's if I get lucky."

"I wouldn't mind a game." Riku spoke. "I've played a bit of shogi before, along with a bit of go, though I'm not all that good at that."

"I can teach you sometime." Michael offered. "But chess is more my specialty than go."

"No prob. I've heard chess isn't all that different from shogi." Riku replied.

"There are a few differences…" Michael said.

Later:

It took Michael a little over half an hour to explain to Riku the difference between chess and shogi, after that the two of them began their game, and half an hour later, they were still playing the same game and it was Riku's turn.

"Gotcha." Riku said, moving his rook in front of his king, which was still on the first line, which had it facing Michael's king. "Check."

Michael didn't say anything, and calmly moved his queen to take Riku's rook, putting it right in front of Riku's king.

"Checkmate." He said.

"Wait a minute how is…" Riku started and then noticed one of Michael's knights was poised to take Riku's king if he used it to take Michael's queen. Riku then shrugged and tipped his king over. "You beat me, Mike."

"You didn't do all that bad yourself." Michael commented. "And thank you. Would you care for a second game?"

"My brain's fried as of now." Riku replied and looked over at Leona. "Why don't you try?"

"Unfortunately, I've had my share off losses against Michael, so I'm afraid I have to decline." Leona replied.

"I guess that leaves me without anything to do." Riku sighed as he lay back onto one of the pews. "Damn I wish I'd brought a book or something to keep me occupied."

The old church was silent for a few minutes until Riku looked over at Michael.

"You know, maybe it would be a good idea if we chat a bit to pass the time." He suggested.

"Sure, why not?" Michael said. "So, why not tell us a little about yourself first?"

"Well let's see…" Riku began. "Alright, as you know, my name is Riku Hanabishi, and I'm a ninja recruited by FOXHOUND. I enjoy sleeping, making fireworks, anime, and hanging out with my friends, and I hate Matthew Reese and not having enough sleep." This last statement caused everyone else in the room to sweat drop.

"Well, at least he's honest." Michael spoke.

"Yeah, not many people would include their likes and dislikes in an introduction." Leona agreed. "A bit unusual for a ninja since they're usually more secretive about personal things."

"I trust you guys enough." Riku shrugged. "Also that info probably won't be much use in enemy hands."

"Do you have any, well, dreams for the future?" Michael asked and then looked at Riku apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry; I'm just curious. I mean…"

"A fifteen year old ninja in FOXHOUND is a bit unusual." Riku finished with a friendly smile. "Well, I'm afraid my main dream for the future is private. I can tell you that it has to do with my being a shinobi, but enough about that."

"You're fifteen?!" Ralf exclaimed. "Aren't you a little young to be…?"

"I had reasons for becoming a member of FOXHOUND." Riku explained. "One reason was so I could protect my clan from hostile organizations, and FOXHOUND offered benefits to help with that. And don't be too worried about my age; after all you could see I can hold my own in battle well enough."

"Can I ask you one more question?" Michael asked and Riku nodded. "What ninja clan are you from? I mean if it's alright for you to tell us."

"My clan is called Hokage." Riku answered. "I doubt you've heard of us, though."

"I'm afraid I haven't." Michael admitted. "Like I told you before, a close friend of mine is a ninja, and she's from the Shiranui clan, along with her adopted brother. I haven't heard her mention a clan by that name before."

"The reason is because my clan was nearly exterminated by Oda Nobunaga centuries ago, but let's not turn this into a history lesson. Why not tell me a little about you now?"

"What would you like to know?"

"Well, I'm interested in how you know the famous Ikari team, for one. Not to mention how you're acquainted with the Shiranui clan; I'm afraid my clan hasn't been in much contact with the other ninja clans."

"Well, to answer your first question, I've known these guys for quite a while, but I've known Heidern the longest." Michael answered. "When I had finished training with the Green Berets when I was nineteen, Heidern saved my life during one of my missions for them. After that, he took me under his wing and trained me and it was during that time that I met Ralf and Clark and I've known Leona since Heidern took her in."

"I can tell from how you're talking that everyone in this group is like family to you." Riku noted while smiling. "In ninja terms, they're like your clan, huh? Anyway, how do you know ninjas from the Shiranui clan?"

"Well, the one I know the best is a woman named Mai." Michael replied. "She was having some personal problems when I first ran into her, anyway, a few things happened and we became good friends not too long after. Later on, I met her adopted younger brother, Hokutomaru."

"Hey, just wondering, but could you ever introduce me to these two someday?" Riku asked. "The only ninjas I've met are the ones in my clan and I'm pretty curious to meet other fellow ninjas from different clans, as long as they're friendly of course. After over four hundred years, I think it's time for the Hokage to make some contact with the other clans."

"I'll introduce you if I ever get the chance." Michael answered. "By the way, could you tell me something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I noticed that you lit those fireworks of yours very quickly and you didn't seem to be using any lighters or matches. How did you do that?"

(Oh crap!) Riku thought. (He noticed!)

"Well...that's..." Riku began wondering if he should tell Michael his secret or not.

Suddenly the door opened and Heidern and Clark walked in. Heidern made a quick glance out of the door to make sure that no one had followed them before quickly closing it.

"Well, did you guys find anything?" Ralf asked.

"Yes, we were able to find out where WOTAN is being constructed." Heidern answered.

"How'd you manage to find that out?" Riku spoke.

"I noticed that some of Bulgarin's men were having a bit of a friendly chat over drinks at the local bar." Clark answered. "I decided I'd buy them some more and join their conversation. It took some time and drinks, but they were more than happy to talk to me about anything soon after."

"I guess that means we'd better make plans to pay where ever they're keeping WOTAN a visit, huh?" Ralf said with a grin. "So where's the thing being built?"

"It's a facility near the town of Dagestan. A 5000 year old town around the base of the Tabasaran Mountains." Heidern replied "We better get ready to leave immediately."

All in the room nodded their understanding


	5. Metal Gear WOTAN

**Venom Coursing**

**Disclaimers**: See previous disclaimers. I do not own Lt. Matthew Reese or Maggie Thompson they are the property of RuneKnightPictures and Tempest Dynasty respectively. Also, Greg Kinezono and Linn Aramaki are the property of ShardclawKusanagi's.

**Author's Notes**: Special thanks to Darkfusion for his editing.

**Chapter 4 – Metal Gear WOTAN**

Vladimir Bulgarin sat at the desk of his office listening to Severin's report grasping the receiver tightly. Also in the room was his second in command Colonel Anatoli Kulov, a tall middle aged, and very powerful man wearing a moustache, Captain Josef Metaxas. Also there were Kerenzhikov and Korzhakov.

"I see, come back here then, they'll be here sooner or later." Bulgarin then put down the phone into the cradle then he turned to glare at Korzhakov.

"What did you tell them, Korzhakov?" Bulgarin demanded. "How much do our enemies know?"

"I only told them about WOTAN and SURTUR; I made sure it was nothing specific and I didn't give them the location of this facility." Korzhakov replied nervously. "I didn't intend to talk, but that FOXHOUND kid used some sort of psychological trick to get me to talk. I wasn't prepared for something like that."

Bulgarin looked at Korzhakov to make sure that he was telling the truth and then nodded in acknowledgement.

"Very well Korzhakov, I believe you." He said. "Now, about the SURTUR warheads, are they ready?"

"Yes, they are ready General." Korzhakov replied simply.

"What about the nuclear warheads?" asked Bulgarin turning to Pilsudski.

"They are loaded and ready to be fired, sir." Pilsudski replied.

"Good." Bulgarin then turned to the rest of his suboordinates. "Perovskaya, Metaxas, I want you to put all of our soldiers to be on standby and be prepared to greet the Ikari Team and their FOXHOUND ally when they arrive. You are all dismissed."

Everyone in the room promptly saluted before quickly leaving. After they had all left, Bulgarin decided to contact the WOTAN development team…

A tall gaunt man in his late forties with thinning brown hair went to answer a ringing phone "Borzhtov here."

"This is General Bulgarin, how long will it take to complete WOTAN?" Bulgarin's voice asked.

"Better than expected, really." Professor Boris Ivanovich Borzhtov answered with a grin. "We're actually ahead of schedule, sir. WOTAN will be completed soon; perhaps within a few hours."

"That's excellent! Keep me posted."

"Yes sir."

As Borzhtov put the phone down he regarded his other colleagues: Dr. Yoshikazu Kuromoto, a man in his late thirties with a neatly trimmed beard wearing glasses; Dr. Vassily Chuikov, a bald stocky man in his early fifties, and Dr. Felix Streicher a small skinny man in his mid forties wearing glasses.

"So what did Bulgarin want?" Chuikov asked as he typed on his computer. He was analyzing the structure of WOTAN and was making sure all the systems he was in charge of would function correctly.

"He was just curious on our progress on WOTAN." Borzhtov answered.

"Hmph. Leave it to the sponsors to bother us when we have better things to do with our time." Streicher sneered. "Oh well, at least now I can proceed without anymore interruptions."

"Hey, just in case something goes wrong, is our escape covered?" Kuromoto spoke.

"Don't worry about that." Borzhtov replied. "That has already been taken care of. Should WOTAN be destroyed, though it's highly unlikely, I have ensured we'll be able to leave this place without any interference."

Bulgarin put down the phone he picked up a photo from his desk; it was a picture of his wife and his children from when they went on holiday in the Baltics.

Bulgarin remembered all those years back in 1991. When the coup happened, he always supported Gorbachev's reforms since he knew that they were what was best for Russia, but then those idiotic hard-liners took over.

(How could they have been so ignorant? Those fools set in motion Russia's ruin under that fool Yeltsin!) Bulgarin clenched his fist in anger as he remembered what followed. The coup had failed and Boris Yeltsin came to power, then in 1992-1993 the economy was in ruins, in 1996 he handed everything over to lackeys of the Patriots who brought Russia even further to its knees.

"Paval…" Bulgarin's voice was mingled with grief, regret, and even a little anger as he thought of his son's utterly useless death. He had been so proud when Paval joined the Russian army. But then the Chechnyan war happened, and on that fateful year in 1994, Paval perished in that war; a useless war and a pointless war. He remembered the feeling of dread as he held the notice from the army in his hands, followed by the crushing pain he felt as he read the news he had been dreading, and his wife crying as he broke the news to her and had to comfort her and his daughters for hours.

Then Bulgarin remembered the loss of his daughters; it was on October 4th 1999 that it happened. They were walking home when they were attacked, raped and murdered by drug addicts. Bulgarin could still remember that day when he and his wife had to identify their poor, brutalised remains. It completely broke his wife's heart and she died a year later.

It was then that he decided that nothing was going to hold him back. Bulgarin swore as he watched his wife's coffin being laid into the ground next to the graves of his son and daughters, that he was going to destroy the Patriots no matter what the cost and both WOTAN and SURTUR held the means to that end.

(I don't care how many lives are lost in this. I don't even care if I go to hell in the end, if such a place does exist.) Bulgarin thought and then looked at the picture of his family one last time before he got up and left the room. As he did a thought came to mind.

(Ironic though…) He thought bitterly. (When I heard about the incident in Grozny Grad decades ago, I thought Volgin was fool and a madman for attempting to do what he did with the Shagohod, but it seems I'm now about to start the same thing. How strange is fate…)

Michael, Heidern, Leona, Riku, Ralf and Clark procured their new hideout in Dagestan, a town near the WOTAN facility at the Tabasaran Mountains. The hideout was the remains of a mansion that had been owned by a nobleman during the days of the Tsar before the communists took over. The mansion had long since been deserted and then looted, but the old ruin was remote enough to suffice as a hideout.

"Right, let's go over everything." Heidern said, discussing their initial reconnaissance of the base.

"All of the main entrances to the base are under very tight security as are a few other areas that could suffice as entrances, but there's this one air shaft that doesn't seem to be guarded." Michael explained. "However, all of us going through that way is very risky."

"Agreed." Heidern nodded in agreement. "Too many people going in through that way will only increase the chance of us being caught."

"So what's the plan then?" Ralf asked. "If only a few of us can even go in that was, how are the rest of us going to get in?"

"Well… the plan is for Riku and I to go through the air shaft." Michael answered. We will then proceed to deactivate the security system once we reach the security room, and once that's done everyone else can go through one of the back exits where there appear to be only security systems covering it and apparently very few guards."

"Sounds like it should be an effective plan." Leona said.

"Alright, we'll take a half hour to rest and prepare for the infiltration." Heidern spoke and everyone nodded.

"What's wrong?" Riku asked as Michael suddenly stopped sorting the equipment he had with him.

"GET DOWN!" Michael shouted shoving Riku to the ground as there was the sound of a gun going off. A second later a bullet hit the place Riku had been.

"Ikari group, Hansen, and FOXHOUNDer, we have you completely surrounded." A soldier's voice announced. "Come out now or we will open fire."

Heidern and Michael looked out the window of the old mansion and saw that there were over a dozen enemy troops and they were carrying rocket launchers and various heavy artillery to show that they did intend to bombard the place if the group refused to come out.

"General, we got problems." Clark spoke coming into the room they were in. "Those guys have the back exit covered too."

"Damn it, how the hell did they find us so quickly?" Ralf asked.

"We can assume that due to the fact that this town is so close to the facility that they must have had men ready for us in any part of town." Michael answered.

"So what should we do?" Ralf asked in reply. "If we have to fight our way out, we'd better do it quick so we can get into that base WOTAN's in before it's complete."

"I suppose there's no choice." Heidern admitted, and then suddenly noticed that a member of their group was missing. "Hey, where's Riku?"

"Riku? He's…" As Michael looked around the room to find the young ninja, he saw the front door outside open and Riku stepped out. "What the hell?!"

"What's wrong, did you…oh shit." Leona said as she looked out the window. She then looked back at everyone else. "We just found him, but…"

"What the hell is that kid doing?!" Ralf asked.

"You got me." Clark answered, with a shrug.

Outside, Riku stood in front of the Russian soldiers who now had their guns trained on him.

"Only one of you?" The commander asked with an arrogant smirk. "And the FOXHOUNDer as well. What, are your allies sending you out in hopes that by giving you to us we'll let them go?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Riku answered. "I'm here to ask that you leave right now if you want to live. I don't really like the idea of you guys blowing away my buddies over there with a bunch of heavy artillery for one thing, and also we're in a bit of a hurry. So if you all just go now, and do whatever you want, you can even report to your superiors at that base for all I care, you'll live. If not…"

"Heh, like we'll do something like that?" The commander snorted. "Why don't you tell those friends of yours to come out now so we won't kill you?" The man then grinned. "Of course if your comrades give us that woman in your group for a few hours or more, we'll consider letting you go."

There were a few snickers from the men in the unit after the last statement.

Riku's expression was unreadable but he sighed and shook his head.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it." He said. "Looks like I now have to pay you guys back for insulting Leona-san too." He then brought his right hand up in a fist and then it became engulfed in flames, and then smirked at the surprise of his enemies. "Farewell…"

Riku then swung his fist down in a sweeping formation at the Russian troops and a wave of fire sped towards them immediately setting the men in front on fire. However, it wasn't the fire that was the real danger, but the explosives the men were carrying, as Riku leapt back away from the troops just as the fire ignited the artillery causing a tremendous explosion that instantly incinerated the other troops.

Riku glanced at the smoking inferno and saw that there were no survivors before walking to the doorstep of the mansion and then reentering the old house.

"Alright, kid, start explaining yourself." Clark said seriously. "How were you able to use flames like that?"

"I guess that stunt I just pulled off gave you guys quite a surprise, huh?" Riku asked, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

"Riku, this is serious." Michael reminded him. "We need to know…?"

"How I can wield flames like I just did, right?" Riku finished. "Well, it's something members of my ninja clan can do, ones born with the power anyway, and no I'm not from the Kusanagi or Yagami clan, nor am I related to either. My flames have a different source than theirs."

"What's the source?" Heidern asked.

"The source of my flames comes in the form of an eight headed dragon." Riku answered and instantly regretted saying that once he noticed the expressions of his friends after hearing that. "Okay, bad choice of names, now before you guys jump to the wrong conclusions, I'm not a member of the Orochi clan and my flames don't come from that thing."

"Your flames are the wrong color anyway, and they don't feel like Orochi's flames either." Leona spoke. "You just startled us a little with what you said about the source of your flames."

"Yeah, I don't really blame any of you for that." Riku shrugged.

"So why didn't you tell us about this before?" Ralf asked.

"My ability to wield flames is a secret in FOXHOUND, and it's a good idea for me to keep it a secret outside of FOXHOUND too." Riku answered.

"I can understand that." Leona admitted.

"Well, do you guys still trust me?" Riku asked.

"Of course, but try not to pull off anymore surprises like that again, alright?" Michael answered. "And besides, we should be thanking you for helping us like that."

"Well, you're quite welcome, then." Riku smiled. "So, should we head for the base now?"

"That's a good idea." Heidern agreed. "Especially after what just happened. Once those soldiers fail to report to Bulgarin, they'll send more here. Let's get going and then proceed with infiltrating the base."

Within half an hour, they arrived and they immediately began infiltrating the base; which was a complex set into a mountain. Michael and Riku were sent in first to deal with the base's security systems so the others could sneak in without too much trouble. After sneaking past a few guards, the two of them made it to the security room.

There was only one guard on duty there, and Riku immediately snuck up behind him and knocked him out with a single shot to the head with his M9. He turned back to Michael and nodded, and Michael quickly went and deactivated the security system for the base. As soon as he finished, Michael then activated his codec to notify Heidern.

"Heidern, do you read me?" He asked as soon as Heidern's face appeared on the screen.

"Loud and clear, what's the situation?" Heidern answered.

"Riku and I have successfully disarmed the security systems where you're about to come in; you're good to go."

"Affirmative, let's go." And the transmission ended.

Riku looked over at Michael, who nodded at him. The infiltration had begun.

Michael and Riku had left the command centre when all of a sudden out of nowhere there were grenades they barely had time to get out of the way when they exploded.

"Riku!" Michael shouted amidst the smoke and dust unable to see his friend anywhere.

"You're pretty good Hansen but can you survive THIS!" A burly man shouted. He was standing above him and was brandishing a Mini-Gun.

Michael was barely able to dodge the rate of fire of the Mini Gun, he knows if he goes frontal he will only be cut to ribbons by the bullets. Suddenly he turned and he saw the ledge and also saw some weakening caused by Metaxa's earlier grenade attack then Michael saw a crane and knew he would get a prime shot at Metaxas if he could get there.

Michael rolled across with Metaxas firing a couple of bullets grazed Michael's lower leg and upper arm but Michael was able to get to the crane.

Michael breathed heavily as he considered his situation. He knew that he had time for one shot before Metaxas would fire again, and if he missed Metaxas would cut him down. With a quick intake of breath, Michael suddenly came up at surprising speed and fired his USP hitting Metaxas in the eye causing him to fall off the ledge with a loud thud.

Michael panted as he saw Riku emerge from the smoke and dust caused by the explosion. He was unharmed.

"Riku you're alive!" Michael exclaimed.

Riku grinned but before he could say anything explosions can be heard "What the hell!?"

Michael then overheard something on the radio "What's going on?" came Bulgarin's voice.

"Ah, General Bulgarin, we've been aware of your pathetic little plan to use WOTAN and SURTUR for quite some time. Did you REALLY think it would have gone unnoticed? We'll taking custody of WOTAN and SURTUR if you don't mind." Came a voice, which Michael recognized as General Carter Drake's.

"Well, I congratulate you on that, Drake, but I'm afraid that you're a little too late." Bulgarin snorted. "Now that WOTAN is complete and ready for launch, there's no reason for me to just leave it around for your lackeys to pick up. You and your minions shall serve as a bit of target practice for WOTAN's weapon systems."

There was a crackle as the radio transmission ended.

"Sorry, Mike, but I'm going to have to sit this one out." Riku said.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked.

"If this area will soon become WOTAN's new target practice range, then that means the people in that town this base is close to will get caught in the cross fire." Riku answered. "I'm going to go and evacuate the townspeople."

"Good idea, we need to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible." Michael nodded in agreement.

"I'll keep in touch." Riku said and then ran off towards the exit to the base. "Good luck!"

"You too, Riku!" Michael called.

Colonel Nathan Osbourne received a transmission as he was directing operations.

"Colonel, listen your first priority is to secure WOTAN first, the rest can come later." Drake ordered over the radio.

"Roger." Osbourne said, giving perfunctory acknowledgement before turning off the radio. He then turned to his men. "Go in immediately, we are going for SURTUR."

"But sir!" protested a subordinate. "General Drake's orders were to-"

Perhaps you didn't hear me, major." Osbourne cut him off harshly. "We are going to retrieve SURTUR now! WOTAN can wait."

Michael was halfway through the compound when he heard the sounds of rapid gunfire outside. He quickly glanced out of one of the windows and saw that the Russian soldiers guarding the base were currently engaging what looked like an army of American commandoes.

(It looks like Drake isn't wasting his time in trying to get to WOTAN and SURTUR before WOTAN is active.) Michael observed. (I'd better hurry up and find WOTAN quick, then.)

Michael continued until a tank round from one of the US tanks suddenly struck the area a couple hundred yards in front of him, the shock of the blast throwing Michael back.

Michael quickly got to his feet and saw that despite a couple of bruises he wasn't injured from the blast. One look ahead at the now ruined corridor showed that Michael would have to take a different route now.

Michael immediately saw a corridor to his left and took it. After a few minutes of walking, he came upon what looked like a storage room that could lead to where WOTAN was being stored. He walked in and saw a door at the far end of the room. A quick look around told Michael that the room had barely escaped being demolished by the barrage from the US troops, and there was a large fire blazing in the upper right corner.

"Well now, Hansen, to think you would make it this far." A familiar voice spoke from behind him.

Michael turned around and saw that the speaker was none other than Shade, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Shade…" Michael said.

"I'm actually quite impressed, Hansen. Truly I am." Shade said with a smile. "You just have this odd stubborn streak when it comes to surviving. I haven't encountered anyone who's lived through this many encounters with me in a very long time."

"Save it." Michael replied. "The last thing I need is a compliment from someone like you."

"Too bad, it was sort of a final gift to you before you die now." Shade then shook his head. "Well, I suppose that's enough talk for now…" Shade then reached for his hat as if to adjust it.

Michael immediately knew what Shade was about to do and readied himself for the incoming attack.

"Wave Crush!" Shade shouted as he threw his chakram at Michael who immediately dodged the incoming weapon. Michael suddenly saw something headed straight for him and quickly twisted his body to the side, narrowly avoiding a burst of dark energy that had followed the chakram.

As Michel landed on his feet still facing Shade, the man in black smiled as he caught the returning chakram.

"Nice footwork, indeed." He said with an amused smile. "Not very many are able to see the energy shot in time to dodge it."

"Let's see how yours is then." Michael said, and then brought up his hand for moment before suddenly throwing an aerial slash wave at Shade. "Darkness Cutter!"

Shade shook his head as he easily sidestepped the projectile attack.

"Did you honestly think that…?" Shade stopped as he felt a sharp pain in the lower part of his left leg. He glanced down and saw a large gash in his lower left leg. (I see…He knew I would dodge the attack with ease, but was counting on the air that followed the wave to cut me.)

Shade's thinking was interrupted as Michael charged to him. Shade immediately prepared a counterstrike.

"Genocide-!" Shade prepared to unleash a back kick at Michael, but was unable to perform the attack as Michael slid under Shade's outstretched leg.

"Sliding Blade!" Michael shouted as he performed a slashing roundhouse kick on his surprised opponent. Michael wasn't finished though, and quickly and successfully connected the previous move with a rising spin kick. "Aerial Wonder!"

As Shade was knocked away, he immediately turned his body in midair so that he would land on his feet. As he landed Michael immediately threw another slash wave at him. Shade grinned and spun his chakram in front of him in the path of the incoming attack.

"Applause for the Darkness!" Shade shouted as the chakram deflected the wave, sending it back towards Michael, who quickly leaped out of the way, narrowly missing getting struck by his own move.

Shade stopped for a minute, observing that Michael was barely even stopping to catch his breath and had now assumed a fighting stance, waiting for Shade to now make a move.

(I don't believe it; this guy is actually able to keep up with me now when just days ago I still didn't have any trouble with him.) Shade thought. (I suppose that's to be expected from an apprentice of Heidern, but this is getting ridiculous. I suppose I'll have to start getting serious now or I'll just end up wasting my time.)

As Shade was thinking to himself, there was suddenly a the sound of a loud explosion above them as a bomb dropped by one of the bombers from the US forces struck the building, causing the whole room to rock from the force of the explosion.

(How annoying…) Shade thought as he began to focus in order to bring out more of his true strength.

That was almost immediately proved to be a mistake as the ceiling of the room Michael and Shade were in suddenly collapsed. Shade opened his eyes and looked up just in time to see an avalanche of flaming debris come crashing down on him.

Michael could hardly believe his luck as he saw his foe get buried under tons of burning wood, concrete, and metal, but all thoughts of that were quickly banished as a large amount of debris came down only a few inches away from him. Michael glanced to the door he had entered the room in and saw it was still open and made a mad dash towards it. As he got out the door, Michael could still here the sounds of collapsing debris behind him.

After a few minutes the sounds slowed down until they finally stopped. Michael then cautiously stepped into the room he had just been in. As he looked around, Michael could see that many of the large piles of debris were still burning and there was no sign of Shade anywhere. Suddenly an astounding surprise greeted him; somehow, the path to the doorway to the other side of the room was almost clear and the door was not damaged.

Michael quickly and carefully waded through some of the debris until he reached the door, and managed to push the door open and walked through, to find himself in another hallway.

(From the information Heidern gave me about the layout of this place, I should be getting close to where WOTAN is.) Michael thought. (I hope I can get to it before it launches.)

As Riku finally made it to the town he heard his codec ring and he answered it. The caller was none other than Lt. Matthew Reese.

"Drakken, what the hell are you doing?!" Reese demanded. "Why is your position moving away from the base WOTAN is at?"

"WOTAN will have to wait for now." Riku answered. "The base is near a town and I need to evacuate the civilians first."

"That's irrelevant. I order you to return to your duties and proceed to secure or destroy WOTAN."

"I will once I've evacuated the townspeople." Riku insisted.

"No, you will follow my orders now, exactly when I tell you to!" Reese shouted. "If you do not do as I order you to, I-!" Reese was cut off as Riku turned off his codec.

"I never liked that channel anyway." Riku said as he made his way into the town to begin the evacuation.

Mcihael ducked behind a corner as a small squad of guards came down the hall. They quickly rushed past him, not bothering to check for any possible intruders.

(Looks like the security's being thrown in to help throw off the assault.) Michael thought as he checked to make sure no more guards were coming and then resumed his search for the hangar that held the metal gear WOTAN.

After a few minutes, Michael came to a large set of double doors made of bulletproof glass. A check at the Russian label next to the door, confirmed that this was the door to the hangar. Michael immediately drew his USP, and carefully pushed the door open and walked in.

As he entered and looked around, Michael could see that the hangar was virtually deserted, save for two men, Bulgarin and a Russian man Michael did not know wearing a pilot's outfit. Bulgarin was standing in the control room whilethe pilot was standing in front of a large humanoid machine. It had a set of large cannons on each shoulder, along with a large jet pack and wings set to its back. There were also twin Vulcan cannons set to each forearm.

(So that's WOTAN, the new metal gear…) Michael thought as he observed the machine. (Judging by the looks, I'd say the cannons are for launching missiles, most likely the SURTUR ones. I'd better make sure that pilot doesn't get into WOTAN otherwise it's over…)

"Alright, Kulov, this is it." Bulgarin instructed from the control room. "What we have all been working for is finally about to become reality. Now do what you have been trained to do; this shall be your finest hour. For Mother Russia!" Bulgarin saluted to Kulov.

(And for the end of the Patriots.) Bulgarin thought to himself as Kulov saluted back.

"For Mother Russia." Kulov said firmly and then turned and proceed to the stairs to WOTAN's cockpit.

"FREEZE!" Michael shouted as he leaped out of his hiding place and pointed his USP at Kulov, who stopped and looked in Michael's direction.

"Hansen, I was wondering when you were going to show up." Bulgarin said as he saw Michael. "So, I take it you've come to stop WOTAN's launch."

"Exactly." Michael said as he kept the gun pointed at Kulov.

"Heh, I dare you to shoot Kulov." Bulgarin grinned.

"You do?" Michael asked suspiciously.

"Shoot him and you'll discover WOTAN isn't the only thing this base has." Bulgarin answered. "The moment Kulov's heart stops beating, the self destruct for WOTAN will initiate destroying this entire base, along with the chance that the SURTUR virus will be unleashed in the explosion. So if you care what happens to your friends in this base, along with any civilians nearby, do not interfere."

"Damn you!" Michael shouted at Bulgarin.

Michael watched helplessly as WOTAN launched and he and everyone else scrambled to get away.

"I surrender!" Korzhakov shouted to the soldiers they promptly take him into custody.

"Let's go." Borzhtov said calmly as he and the other WOTAN scientists escaped. "Regardless of whether WOTAN is truly a success or not, this area will soon be taken over by those soldiers. It would be a good idea if we made ourselves scarce before they arrive."

"So what's next on the agenda after our escape?" Kuromoto asked.

"Holy shit, it's launching!" Ralf shouted as they saw WOTAN take off.

"We're getting out of here, now move!" Heidern commanded and they quickly left the crumbling facility.

Michael ducked behind a large boulder as WOTAN sped past overhead, showering anything in its path below with a hail of bullets from its Vulcan cannons.

(Damn this thing's fast.) Michael thought as he clutched the stinger. (Not to mention its armor is too thick for a missile to damage it. Still there has to be some weak point to it.)

Michael studied WOTAN as it turned around to try and find him.

(Since it can fly like it does, WOTAN probably has an engine similar to a jet.) Michael thought. (Which means it must have a cooling system for it. If I can damage that then WOTAN is as good as finished. The only problem is how am I supposed to target something that's inside the metal gear?)

Michael ran through the Tabasaran mountains desperately trying to get away from WOTAN, it followed in flight mode while Kulov pursued. Michael barely climbed to the top of a mountain where he saw WOTAN

Michael raised the stinger up to carefully take aim at WOTAN's midsection as it transformed back into flight mode. Michael immediately fired the missile as soon as he saw the area to target. A few seconds later, there was a loud explosion as the missile hit its mark. WOTAN faltered a little as it continued its transformation and took off, leaking out cooling liquid as it did.

Meanwhile, Kulov steered WOTAN in the direction the missile had been fired from.

(When you fired that missile you gave away your position, Hansen.) Kulov thought with a smirk. (It's time to end this so I can finish my mission.)

Kulov suddenly heard a loud beeping noise and looked at the control panel to see that the metal gear's cooling system had been severely damaged and that WOTAN was starting to overheat. He then reached for the eject button, but nothing happened after he repeatedly mashed at it. It was only a few minutes later that his life was suddenly snuffed out.

Suddenly WOTAN exploded into flames with a loud explosion that literally shook the ground in the area for miles, and the mangled and flaming wreck that was once Metal Gear WOTAN crashed into the rocks below. Meanwhile Michael was lying on the snow panting from exhaustion as he had to run to escape the debris from the explosion. He then heard something and looked and saw a heavily wounded Bulgarin crawling in the snow. Michael quickly approached him raising his weapon.

"What do you really want, Hansen? Is anything really going to change after you shoot me?" Bulgarin asked. "Nothing will change and you know it; the Patriots will still be in control. Will you shoot? Can you? Are you prepared to shoulder the burden that I have –"

Michael promptly shot Bulgarin in the head not giving the old man a chance to finish "That's enough of you." He muttered bitterly "You know everyone…everyone carries a burden in life that's just how it is. Your burden is no heavier and no lighter then anyone else's."

With that Michael turned and headed towards town he saw Heidern, Leona, Riku, Ralf and Clark.

"Mike, are you alright?" Heidern asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a few bruises." Michael answered. "How are the civilians?"

"They're safe; we were able to successfully evacuate everyone." Leona replied. "It's a good thing Riku went ahead before us to help evacuate those people, or they would have been caught in the crossfire from WOTAN."

Riku then looked at over and saw Bulgarin's corpse, and then shook his head.

"Vladimir Bulgarin...what a sad man." He said. "A man who stopped living."

"Stopped living?" Michael asked. "What do you mean?"

"When you spy on someone for a while and you watch them all the time, in a way you get to know them almost as much as a close friend would." Riku answered. "Bulgarin apparently wasn't a very bad sort, a long time ago...But when he lost everyone dear to him, his wife, son, and daughters, he stopped and that's what made him the way he is or was now."

"You almost sound like you pity the man." Heidern noted.

"He's dead now so he isn't my enemy anymore, so sympathy can be allowed now." Riku replied. "At least, that's how I see things."

"Compassion for enemies isn't a good idea, Riku." Clark spoke. "If you do that..."

"A corpse can't hurt me, can it?" Riku asked. "Don't worry; while I do pity Bulgarin, I'm not excusing him for what he's done. His death was necessary."

"Could you tell me what you meant by, 'he stopped'?" Michael asked.

"It's something I believe." Riku answered. "And that's that grief and remorse should not stop you from living. No matter what, you have to move forward even if it's just one step at a time. If you stop, you either lose your mind or yourself or lose your humanity, just like Bulgarin did."

"I guess I can see your point there." Michael said. "Anyway, we should probably..." He was interrupted by the sound of an engine close by.

"Must be my friends from FOXHOUND." Riku surmised. "When I saw WOTAN crash, I contacted HQ and told them the mission had been accomplished, but..."

Suddenly they looked over to where the sound of the engines of a helicopter as it landed came from, they then saw two people came out. A woman with brown hair with streaks of blonde come out and was followed by a man in his forties who stormed over to Riku as soon as he spotted him. Riku groaned as the man approached.

"Why did you disobey my orders!?" The man demanded his face contorted in rage.

"Look Reese, there were civilian lives in danger. I didn't have any..."Riku began, but Reese cut him off.

"That's Lt. Reese to you, you little miscreant!" Reese said angrily. "I don't give a damn about whatever excuses you have for me, you were supposed to do what I told you, no matter what your personal reasons!"

"Excuse me, sir, but WOTAN has been destroyed as per mission objectives, and besides isn't it our overall duty to protect the people from these sorts of things?" Riku asked, struggling to keep from losing his temper. "Wasn't FOXHOUND reformed to protect innocent lives?"

"Don't try weaseling your way out of this by using that damned moral bullshit, Hanabishi!" Reese snarled.

"I am not doing any such thing, sir, I can assure you." Riku growled. "It seems to me that you value the standing of your orders to the lives of..."

"God damn it, this is why I'm opposed to having children as our operatives!" Reese shouted in frustration, and glared at Riku. "You listen to me boy, civilian deaths always happen, and that's called 'acceptable losses'."

"ACCEPTABLE?!" Riku finally exploded. "How can you call the deaths of innocent people acceptable?!"

"Hmph. Grow up and open your eyes, Hanabishi." Reese snorted. "If you simply see such 'distractions' as numbers and figures like a real soldier should, then you would do better on missions."

"The day numbers and figures replace people in my eyes, is the day I commit seppuku." Riku said grimly. "Those 'numbers and figures' could just as easily have been my family or friends."

"Then I'm sure if they had, they'd be glad to die with such honor." Reese sneered.

"You..." Riku's voice was now barely above a whisper, but the coldness in it could have frozen boiling water. He then took a step towards Reese with an angry look in his eyes, but suddenly stopped.

Michael stood between the two, and before Reese could react he landed a harsh blow on Reese's cheek causing a very nasty cut. Reese cried out in pain as he clutched at the wound, and was about to say something but the cold, harsh glare of Michael kept Reese were he was.

"Who do you think you are, anyway?" Michael asked coldly. "Innocent lives aren't something that can be measured, like you seem to think, and how dare you make such an assumption about Riku's family and friends, calling it acceptable and even honorable if they were killed for your orders. You're every bit as incompetent as I've heard, Matthew Reese."

"How dare you?!" Reese shouted getting up, but Michael roughly shoved him to the ground.

"Riku completed his mission successfully and that is what matters, not a bunch of technicalities. Don't criticize other people's duties when you obviously can't even do your own, you half assed old fool!" Michael harshly rebuked and then turned and walked away. Heidern glared at Reese one last time, and then walked off. As the two of them left, along with rest of the Ikari team, Michael caught the woman smiling slightly; apparently she didn't think much of Reese either.

Michael, Heidern, Leona, Ralf and Clark made their way to the car.

"General, you actually know that bum?" Ralf asked, breaking the ice.

"Unfortunately, yes." Heidern answered. "I met him a long time ago, while I was doing an important military operation and he was one of the men working with me. During a critical moment, he decided not to follow my advice and his unit was massacred as a result, and there were many more who didn't need to die as a result, but did, and Reese had the nerve to blame yours truly afterwards."

"That almost makes me wish I hadn't stopped Riku back there." Michael admitted, and then turned around as heard the sound of approaching feet. He immediately saw that it was Riku.

"Hey, couldn't you have at least said good bye or see you later?" Riku asked when he caught up with them.

"Sorry about that, Riku, but I'm not sure our presence would have been very much tolerated back there." Michael answered.

"Hey, don't think that old fool represents FOXHOUND, because he doesn't." Riku said. "I sometimes wonder why Campbell doesn't just sack him and get someone else. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to you guys for helping me so much throughout this whole mission. It was truly an honor to work with all of you."

"Hey, we should be thanking you." Ralf said. "If it hadn't been for that flame thing you pulled before, we'd probably be dead now."

"But if it hadn't been for Michael's helping me, I'd be the dead one." Riku replied and then turned to leave. "Well, I'll see you guys around; take care of yourselves, okay."

"Will do, Riku." Leona said. "You do the same, alright?"

"Of course." Riku smiled. "Oh by the way, whenever the next King of Fighters tournament happens and you guys are participating, please tell me. I'll definitely come and root for you guys or who knows; I might form my own team and meet you guys in the ring."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure to tell you." Heidern spoke. "I look forward to either one, Riku. Anyway, good luck to you and don't get yourself killed."

"Heh. I won't." Riku grinned. "See you when I see you." Riku then turned and left.

"Interesting kid, I must say." Heidern said as soon as Riku was gone. "He sure acts different from most of the ninjas I've met."

"Yeah, he's the complete opposite of Eiji Kisaragi, that's for sure." Ralf agreed. "Still don't see why he'd want to fight in the King of Fighters tournament, though."

"He probably just wants to follow family footsteps, I guess." Heidern shrugged. "I had a look into his history and it seems his father fought in a martial arts tournament similar to King of Fighters. It was called the Urabutosatsujin, but the main difference was that killing was allowed and even encouraged. Riku's father's team was the only one that didn't kill their opponents."

"I see." Michael said. "Well, he certainly was an interesting fellow. I wonder when we'll meet again."

Riku sat back in the helicopter as it took off. Reese was sitting far in the back of the chopper, nursing the wound Michael had given him. Riku smirked at the sight of that before turning back to fellow FOXHOUNDer, Maggie Thompson.

"Hey, Riku, despite the fact that you disobeyed Reese's orders, you also did a very good thing with having the foresight to evacuate those civilians." Maggie said.

"Thanks, Maggie; it's good to hear that." Riku replied with a grin and then laid his head back. "Now to get some well deserved rest…"

"You sure sleep a lot." Maggie smiled. "You know, you really live up to your codename, Riku."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Riku asked, keeping one eye open lazily.

"In most stories I've read, dragons spend most of their time sleeping than anything else." Maggie answered. "They're usually extremely destructive and always powerful, but they're also big sleepy heads."

"Thanks for the compliment." Riku smiled and then closed his open eye and fell asleep.

They arrived at FOXHOUND and Greg Kinezono and Linn Aramaki were waiting at the landing pad as the chopper touched down. The two of them immediately saw Reese as he stepped out of the chopper ahead of Riku and Maggie; they also noticed the cut wound he had gotten from Michael.

"Hey, what's the matter Reese? Cut yourself shaving?" Greg asked with a grin.

"Be quiet!" Reese hissed as he stormed off, leaving them behind in their laughter.

Greg then noticed Riku come out of the chopper, yawning as he had slept the whole flight back. Maggie followed him out.

"Hey Riku, how did the mission go?" Linn asked.

"It was successful, thank God for that." Riku answered and then grinned. "Hey, you guys curious as to how old man Reese got that cut of his?"

"Don't tell me you did that?" Greg asked.

"Greg, if I were going to hurt Reese, I'd do a lot more than give him a cut on the face." Riku answered. "So, you interested?"

"You bet anything to hear how the old fart's day turned bad." Greg grinned and then turned to Maggie. "Hey, are you staying?"

"I'd love to, but I have a couple of things I need to take care of." Maggie admitted. "Don't tell anyone, but I wish someone had a camera for when that guy slugged Reese. That's been the highlight of my whole day with having to put up with him."

"A real Kodak moment, wasn't it?" Riku asked.

"Exactly." Maggie answered. "Well, I'll see you guys later." And she walked off, while Riku proceeded to tell Greg and Linn what happened during the mission.

General Drake was in a briefing room somewhere in a secret military installation regarding Osbourne, who was sitting nervously in a chair. Also sitting in another chair was Lt. Matthew Reese.

"Well now, Osbourne, you've certainly outdone yourself." Drake commented calmly and then regarded Osbourne with an angered expression. "Tell me why you disobeyed my orders to secure WOTAN first. You went after SURTUR first instead when it was completely obvious that WOTAN was an immediate threat, you idiot!! Thanks to that we don't have either the WOTAN development team or the prototype itself!"

"But sir, I was able to obtain SURTUR and the man who developed it, and I also got the data for WOTAN…" Osbourne began, standing up to sputter in defense.

"But where is WOTAN itself? And where is its development team?" Drake asked critically. "I just received a report from the data you had left from WOTAN that it would take years, if ever, to develop another fully operational model without the input from Borzhtov or any of his team! The Wiseman's committee has contacted me on this issue and they are NOT pleased with your blunder! Furious only begins to describe it!"

"What's going to happen now?" Osbourne asked, starting to sweat nervously.

"Good question, Colonel." Drake replied simply as he approached Osbourne and suddenly gave a savage knee attack into Osbourne's abdomen, followed immediately by an uppercut breaking Osbourne's nose, and then ended with a leg sweep that sent Osbourne crashing to the floor.

"Fortunately I've already received instructions from the Wiseman's Committee concerning you…" Drake said icily and then gave a vicious stamp on Osbourne's throat. There was a loud, wet, and sickening crunching sound as the man's windpipe was crushed under Drake's boot. Osbourne sputtered and gasped for a few seconds before it ended in a sickening gurgle as the man's eyes clouded over as he died.

Reese looked sickened at the site of the corpse as were two other soldiers.

"Dispose of that." Drake ordered calmly as if the corpse were nothing but everyday garbage, as he wiped his bloodstained boot on the carpet, and then walked over to the door. "I'm going to go see Korzhakov."

**November 10th 2010**

Michael sat in a bar then he saw two people approach him. The first one he instantly recognized as Riku, the other was an older man in civilian clothes.

"Hey Mike!" Riku said with a friendly grin.

"Why, hello Riku! How have you been?" Michael asked.

"Just great, thanks!" Riku answered. "Oh yeah, let me introduce you." Riku then gestured at the older man next to him. "This is Colonel Roy Campbell, commander of FOXHOUND."

"Good to meet you in person, Mr. Hansen." Roy said as he shook Michael's hand.

"Likewise, Colonel." Michael replied. "So why did you want to meet with me?"

"I've heard a great deal of positive things about you, and not just from Riku." Roy answered. "According to what I've heard, you're a skilled fighter and tactician."

"Why thank you." Michael smiled. "So what does that have to do with our meeting?"

"I'm considering offering you a place in FOXHOUND. Our group is always in need of recruits and experienced men like you are what we need due to the fact that most of our recruits are…less experienced in battle."

"You really should consider this, Mike." Riku spoke. "A job with FOXHOUND has many benefits, you know, and the pay's really nice." Riku then grinned. "I would also consider it a great honor to have you as an ally and fight alongside you once again."

"Thanks." Michael nodded and then lapsed into thought.

(Perhaps joining this group is a good idea.) He thought. (I haven't been able to get very many jobs as a mercenary for a while now, and it doesn't look like it will get any better. One benefit to joining FOXHOUND is that I already know one of their recruits. Maybe I should give this group the benefit of the doubt, and if I don't like it, I could always leave.)

"Alright I'm in." Michael said and Roy nodded.

"Well, I welcome you to FOXHOUND, Mr. Hansen." Roy replied. "Please come with us to headquarters so we can make your recruitment official."

TBC


	6. Subchapters 1

**Venom Coursing**

**Disclaimers**: See previous chapters, I do not own Garland 'Berserker Demon' Durev he belongs to Tempest Dynasty and I do not own James 'Silent Scorpion' Masterson either. And special thanks goes to Tempest Dynasty for his permission to use segments from his fic Bloody Hands.

Interlude 1 – Shade's report 

"Yes…Bulgarin and his people have been eliminated." Shade reported over a cell phone and paused to listen to what the man he was talking to had to say. "…What? The WOTAN scientists escaped?"

"…"

"I see, so that fool Osbourne has been eliminated." Shade smirked. "I did frequently warn that moron that he would one day be killed by his own stupidity, but a fool is always destined to die a fool's death."

"…"

"Yeah, I know the guy was just a military bureaucrat…I know it couldn't be helped with what happened with an office manager in charge of a corps just before the operation commenced. It's too bad about General Harriman's heart attack…"

"…"

"I see so the data I got was…yes…yes…its unfortunate my time ran out. Yes, Bulgarin never had any idea about my true intentions and it was a good idea sending me considering my past as a mercenary for the Soviets."

"…"

"So what now?" Shade asked and then the reply came. "I understand, so you have yet another assignment for me. Very well, you can consider it done…I agree it takes people like yourselves to rule the world. Thank you and good night…Mr. Chairman."

Meanwhile:

General Carter Drake paced in his office thinking about how the whole operation of obtaining WOTAN and SURTUR had gone. If he hadn't been called to another important operation, Drake would have personally led the operation to recover WOTAN himself, so he left it to one of his best and most trusted officers, Harriman, but it turned out that luck was not on his side and Harriman had a heart attack. Drake realized now that he should have taken into account Harriman was now in his late sixties and should have had him undergo a physical and left it to one of his younger officers.

Instead, the operation had to be left to that fool Osbourne who ended up screwing up most of his objective, but the bright side was that they did have SURTUR and Shade had gotten them more data on WOTAN than expected, but it would still take years to develop another model, let alone apply the technology required for it.

Drake turned and looked at a picture on his desk it was one of him and his best friend Dr. Curtis Matthews who died a year before the 2nd Impact. For a while he did not know what had become of his friend's son Gregory except what Dr. Clark had told him. Drake had heard that some policewoman named Rio Kinezono had adopted Gregory and he seemed to have been raised well surrounded by this elite police unit called WARRIOR.

(I'm sorry Curtis, but I'm afraid that I'll have to use your son within a few years for 'that' operation.) Drake thought at his late friend. (I wonder what you would think of me now for going through with this…no, actually I don't have to. If you knew what was planned for Greg, you truly would be horrified, wouldn't you Curtis?)

Subchapter 1 – Induction 

Many of FOXHOUND's requirements were tough to pass for the average soldier but Michael had the advantage of many years of training and experience behind him, so he passed every test with very little difficulty.

"Welcome to FOXHOUND Mr. Hansen, your code name will be Venom in light of certain facts that have been brought to my attention." Colonel Campbell said as he was officially welcomed into FOXHOUND. "We are most grateful to have a soldier of your calibre and experience."

"Thank you Colonel." Michael replied politely and the two men shook hands.

"I do hope that you live up to your…reputation, Hansen." Lieutenant Matthew Reese, who was also in the room, spoke. "

Michael sighed as he turned and saw Reese.

"Why hello, Lieutenant Reese how are you doing? More to the point how is your cheek?" Michael said with mock respect and pointing at Reese's still plastered cheek. "It was sort of my fault that happened after all."

Reese glared hatefully at Michael who returned the glare, indicating that the two men would never get along well at all.

"Um…I think it would be best if you had a look around the facility, Venom." Roy spoke, sensing hostility between the two men and not wanting any quarrelling between them.

"I think that's an excellent idea, colonel." Michael replied and excused himself and left the room.

Subchapter 2 – Meeting a Friend 

Michael wandered through FOXHOUND headquarters and didn't bother asking Reese for a tour of the building as he obviously would have refused but just then he saw Riku talking to a middle aged man whom Michael suspected was older than he looked they both saw Michael.

"Hey, Michael!" Riku greeted Michael.

"Hi Riku!" Michael greeted him in return.

"Mr. Hansen, welcome to FOXHOUND; Riku has told me a lot about you. I'm Takeshi Ishida my code name is Night Owl." Ishida said as they shook hands.

"You too Ishida, my code name in FOXHOUND is Venom." Michael replied.

"Venom? Why's that?" Riku asked.

"I have immunity to all types of poisons." Michael answered. "It's an ability I was born with."

"Well, that is a useful one." Riku said. "I mean ninjas need to develop the ability to be immune to a poison, and you're being born with immunity to every type…"

"That would be very handy, especially in situations where the enemy is using stuff like nerve gas as one of their weapons." Ishida spoke. "Anyway, Riku's told me that you're actually a skilled tactician, and I have to admit we need someone like you in our unit. Especially since we have a certain 'problem' in our commanding staff."

"Yeah, Reese." Michael agreed, and then turned to Riku. "Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with him?"

"I usually just ignore the guy, unless of course the orders are convenient for me and whoever's with me." Riku replied. "But all in all, pissing Reese off has become something of a hobby for me. Who knows, maybe one day all that stress I give him will pay off and the good Lieutenant will get a nervous breakdown."

"I look forward to that day." Michael smiled.

"As does everyone else in FOXHOUND." Ishida added, indicating he didn't like Reese either.

Subchapter 3 – Familiarity 

It was the day after another one of his missions at FOXHOUND and more crap from Reese which Michael never bothered listening to and he has learned to tune him out…with good reason.

(_That moron doesn't have ANYTHING useful to say at all so is there any reason I should bother to listen?) _Michael thought and chuckled at this self question mainly because it was such a good one, as Michael himself felt nothing but scorn and contempt for the man.

Michael decided to go into the library and there were a lot of computers with digitalised books there, but Michael preferred a good old fashioned book and never cared much for digitalised books.

After a few minutes of looking he detected someone behind him, the man seemed familiar somehow and Michael tried to place him.

"Oh hello, I haven't seen you around here before are you new?" He asked, a tall and muscular man who looked to be in his late twenties with black short cropped hair and blue-grey eyes.

"Hey. No, I've actually been apart of FOXHOUND for three years now, but I've been on missions for a while." The man answered.

"Ah. I see so you're my senior."

"I guess you could say that. I'm Garland Durev, codename 'Berserker Demon.'"

_(Of course I met him when I was with Heidern!)_ Michael realized._ (So this is the man once known as 'Bloody Hands!)_

"That's it! I knew I saw you from somewhere. I'm Michael Hansen AKA 'Venom.'"

"Right, you were that new guy with Team Ikari and Heidern." Garland said. "Interesting to see you here. Did something happen with Heidern and them?"

"No, I just felt like going off on my own."

"I see. Hey, you like chess? I'm pretty bored and I could use a good partner."

Michael smiled and nodded, "Of course. I love chess."

"Excellent. I call white."

Quickly and efficiently the two soldiers set up their respective pieces across the table. Michael had a feeling it was going to be one of the many games played in the future.

"So why did you join FOX-HOUND?" Garland moved his pawn.

"I got an invite from Campbell. Apparently my skills were in need, and since I had nowhere else to go, I accepted," Michael countered with his own pawn.

"Hmm… Same way I got here. It's nice to see a familiar face; especially one that I have no doubt is experienced."

"Thanks for your confidence. At least one person thinks so."

"Let me guess, Reese?"

"Is he that notorious?"

"Worse. Ever since I joined I've been on a mission every month. Reese assigned Ninety percent of those missions, and they were all not suited for me. I'm a close-combat specialist and an instructor for FOX-HOUND, yet Reese wants me to be 'good all-around.' Heck, the last mission I was on I had to be a counter-sniper against professional assassins. You don't send a CQC specialist on a sniping mission."

"I see. Check." Michael then lapsed into his own thought as he waited for Garland's next move. (_Does Reese have any grasp of tactics of any kind? Not surprising considering what Heidern told me about him.)_

"Wha? Already? Damn," Garland quickly shifted a piece.

"Any other warnings?" Michael asked.

"Yeah. I'm the hand-to-hand combat instructor. I'm not nice to anyone."

"Haha, I'll keep that in mind."

(_Indeed.) _Michael thought to himself.

"Check."

"What goes around comes around…" Michael murmured as he took a moment to strategize.

"There's another person in FOX-HOUND you might like."

"Oh?" Venom shifted his bishop.

"Maggie Thompson, a good friend of mine. She loves chess more than I do…" Berserker Demon used his rook in response.

"Great, I'll have to hunt her down then."

(_This will be interesting…)_ Michael thought.

"Are there many other recruits?"

"Yes, sir. There are a lot of younger people coming in."

(_A lot of young recruits…)_ Michael considered.

"Really? You worried about them?"

"Not really. If they could make it into FOX-HOUND I'm sure they can survive out in the battlefield."

(_They may be young but their training is never for show…)_

"Do they have much experience?"

Michael sighed, breaking his focus from the game, "That's their biggest weakness. Despite having the latest and greatest of VR simulation technology, nothing can replace actual experience."

"Well then, it'll be up to us older guys with actual experience to guide them."

"I won't let them fail."

"You'd make a good father, Hansen."

_(Really…?) _Michael wondered and didn't say anything as he was lost in a sea of memories, memories of Maria how things could have been if not for certain factors, he and Maria were to be married in 2 weeks before she was killed by Shade if that hadn't happened they might well have had a family…

"It could have…" Michael half mumbled to himself.

"Hansen," that brought him out of his thoughts. "I'm sorry if I brought back any bad memories."

"No, no, it's okay. It was actually a good memory…" Michael said shaking his head

"I'm sure you'll find someone that needs you. All you need to do is wait."

"But for how long?" Michael asked

"…I can't answer that. But I feel that it's soon."

"You know what? I believe you," the two soldiers shared a laugh.

The game continued on for nearly an hour, neither man getting the upper hand. Pieces were lost, sacrificed, and gained. Finally, Michael trapped Garland's king in a three-way ambush. A rook, a pawn, and a knight prevented the king's escape.

"Checkmate."

"Damn. Good game, Hansen."

"Please, call me Michael. All my friends do."

"Very well. Shall we play again?"

"Could we? I haven't had a game like that in a while."

Garland smiled, and reset his pieces as did Michael and a bond of brotherhood formed between two men through mutual understanding

Subchapter 4 – Meeting Dark Eden 

Michael was in the library a couple of days after meeting Garland but then he saw a woman who he recognised as the woman who was with Reese in the aftermath of the incident with WOTAN, and she was also someone Garland had mentioned before and then it all clicked with Michael.

"Oh hello there you must be Maggie Thompson I saw you with Reese the other day and Garland told me about you." Michael spoke, causing the woman to turn to him.

"It's nice to meet you Michael, Riku has told us a lot about you." Maggie replied as she shook hands with him.

"I noticed you smile when I punched Reese, so I doubt any of you think highly of Reese." Michael smiled slightly.

"We don't believe me…" Maggie said rolling her eyes.

"I can see why he's still a Lieutenant even in his forties." Michael replied. "There's no way someone as incompetent as that would have very much success in the military."

"You've got that right." Maggie agreed. "There's even a rumour that Reese actually used money to pay to get his current position."

"I wouldn't be surprised if that's actually true."

"I have noticed that Reese has committed quite a few offences including dereliction of duty yet he has never been disciplined I often wonder about it, though I have to admit I never asked Colonel Campbell. Also he seems to keep deferring to him."

"I often wonder about that myself…probably he's wary because he was assigned for political reasons." Michael agreed and then frowned before he shook his head and continued. "That, however, should not be Campbell's primary concern. If he keeps this up he is going to make himself look weak and ineffectual as a leader and it's also going to make people in the unit start to question his authority and I can go on and on about what could happen then."

"Yes indeed." Maggie nodded.

"Weakness is never tolerated in a commander, I remember my first command I was a 2nd Lieutenant back then, it was an operation in Africa I made a mistake that got a few of my men killed one of them was a friend of mine from training." Michael sighed and then continued " As you can understand, I couldn't permit myself to dwell on it or grieve over him, that had to come later, as it wouldn't have helped to have broken down in front of my unit they would have thought 'Damn, something is terribly wrong. The Lieutenant's breaking down' and they probably lost faith in me and with good reason. Because that would have qualified as a display of weakness. I mean surely a veteran officer like Campbell should realise this."

Maggie shook her head. "Well at least there haven't been any mutinies or anything towards Campbell though sometimes things are tense."

"That's certainly good news." Michael replied. "Anyway that's enough about Reese…"

"Yeah, you're right…"

Michael and Maggie were like brother and sister afterwards…

The next day they Michael and Maggie were playing chess on the common grounds.

"Maggie, there was something I was wondering about." Michael spoke as he was deciding his next move.

"What is it?" Maggie asked in reply.

"Well, I was wondering about what spirits are actually like." Michael answered and then saw her flinch slightly. "I mean…if it's a sensitive subject to you then…"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to tell you." Maggie said. "Don't worry, I was just a little surprised by your question. Not very many people ask me about that." She then noticed Riku, who had just walked into the room.

"You can listen too if you want, Riku." She said. "Besides, you yourself have eight spirits bonded to you so this might be something you should know too."

"Alright." Riku nodded and moved closer to the two of them.

"Well, there are many types of spirits." Maggie began. "Most don't really interact with the living very much. The kinds that do are the ones that you need to be careful with."

"What do you mean?" Riku asked.

"Those types are the kind that needs guidance." Maggie answered. "Filled with grief over their own death, they refuse to face their fate. They yearn to live on, and some eventually come to resent those still alive. You see, they envy the living. And in time, that envy turns to anger, even hate. Should these souls remain they'll try to possess or prey on the living."

"And they'll usually end up like the kind you hear about in ghost stories, right?" Michael asked and Maggie nodded.

"Yes, unfortunately." She answered. "The dragons Riku has are bonded to him so they're an exception. A spirit in a symbiotic bond with someone is a lot better off than one in a parasitic one."

"It sounds like being a necromancer is a tough experience." Riku spoke as he considered what Maggie probably had to go through with the nasty kind of ghosts.

"You have no idea…" Maggie replied.

Subchapter 5 – The Graceful Eagle 

Michael was walking through the corridor when he suddenly bumped into a young woman; the young woman was strikingly beautiful with a very generous figure.

"I'm sorry are you hurt?" Michael asked the young woman, helping her up.

"I'm fine thanks, hey are you new?" She asked in reply.

"Kind of, I'm Michael Hansen my code name is Venom." Michael introduced himself.

"Hansen...? Aren't you the new guy here in FOXHOUND?" The young woman asked.

"Yeah that's me I'm pleased to meet you…" Michael trailed off as he realised he did not know her name.

"Linn Aramaki. They call me Silver Eagle."

"Pleased to meet you Linn."

"I only heard vague details from Campbell about you. You sound like an experienced and talented guy."

"I've been around…" Michael shrugged

"I can imagine. I had only just gotten into this kind of life for something different, you know...so I'm hoping I'll be able to adjust."

Michael simply smiled and patted Linn on the shoulder reassuringly. "You'll do fine, I'm certain of that."

"Really?"

"You think so? I'm still having a few doubts..."

"Of course."

"But now I know...it's not going to be that bad. You're starting to become the second reason why I'm giving the thought of staying here some serious thinking."

"Like I told you, I know you'll do fine here."

"Thanks very much, I needed that. I remember when I first got signed in here, one of the higher ups didn't really approve of my...attire."

"Let me guess Reese?"

"None other. The looks he was giving me…" Linn shuddered at the thought. "It wouldn't take a genius to guess what kind of dirty thoughts he had running in his mind at the time."

"Did he ever try something with you?" Michael asked arching his eyebrow, he was a man who thought highly of women and despised any form of male chauvinism.

"No but if he had, let's just say he'd be two olives short of a martini." Linn answered with a smile.

"That's the spirit!" Michael laughed. "Actually that kind of reminds me of an incident after Leona completed her training…"

"Leona? As in Leona Heidern?" Linn asked in amazement. "So it is true after all...you know the Ikari Team?"

"That's right." Michael nodded "I met Heidern over 11 years ago. It was during a mission in Kosovo where he saved my life and he took me under his wing. I tell you, the training he gave me definitely added to my own skills and I've also known Ralf and Clark a long time. I've known Leona since Heidern took her in."

"I see, what about that incident? You know with Leona and that officer?"

"Oh yeah, when it happened I thought of intervening, but it turns out I didn't need to anyway." Michael began. "That officer got a real nasty surprise when he tried to make a rather rude pass at her."

"Really? What happened?" Linn asked.

"Leona flipped him over and gave him a VERY nasty kick between the thighs."

Linn cringed and then asked "Did Leona get into any trouble?"

"No." Michael shook his head "I was there and the officer was the one who had the book thrown at him even though he needed surgery to his groin."

"I hope Reese gets the message."

"I hope so." Michael agreed. "If you ask me, he's just another rank amateur, someone who didn't earn his position obviously and Maggie mentioned to me a rumour he got his position with money."

"Could be true."

"Yeah it could be from what Heidern told me about him."

"Anyway, enough with Reese...I never really liked him from the start, I tend to avoid him most of the time."

"Yep me too the guy never has anything useful to say, so I just tune him out whenever he says something which probably annoys him not that I ever take notice."

"Same here...anyway, where are you off to now, Michael?"

"The VR Training room."

"Hmm...Same here. I was going to stop off to look for Greg first, but I can visit him afterwards. Say, how about we go on a spar when we get there?"

"Sure thing, I'll see you later." Michael then took Linn's hand and kissed it and then walked away with a warm smile at Linn. The attractive woman simply blushed at Michael's act of chivalry and began to think to herself as she headed for her direction.

"A very decent and generous person in his own sense, that is." Linn said to herself. "He seems most interesting enough, but I doubt his charm will meet the likes of Greg. Now that I think of it, where is he anyway?"

Subchapter 6 – The Ferocious Panther 

Michael headed for the training room after talking to Linn. Just then he entered it, he saw a tall young man with light dark skin and brown eyes who was obviously in the middle of training. The young man saw Michael and Michael had the feeling he saw him somewhere before.

"Hey there!" Michael said. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

The young man scowled then he seemed to recognise Michael "Hey! Aren't you Michael Hansen the guy who was with the Ikari Team?"

"Yes…ah, I recognise you now, Greg Kinezono right? I heard you were a student of Kyo, Iori and Geese right?" Michael asked.

"Hey how did you know that?" Greg asked in reply, clearly surprised.

"I am acquainted with Iori through Leona; I also know a lot of people from the King of Fighters tournament."

"Really...to tell you the truth, I was a bit surprised to hear that someone from the Ikari Team was now part of FOXHOUND, but don't get any impressions that I'm hanging out with Geese just to cause trouble...I'm only doing it for the training." Greg said

"Of course!" Michael said with a smile "Though a few people I know won't believe you."

"That's for sure...but enough about me. I heard from the old men that you're the new tactician of FOXHOUND, am I right?"

"That's right."

"What a coincidence. Even Geese told me how formidable you are in battle...how about you and I go a little one-on-one right here to see if that's true?" Greg said as he took off his shirt.

"You're on." Michael replied.

The two FOXHOUND combatants got into their own familiar fighting stances, staring at one other with stares full of determination and anticipation for a good fight. There was a brief stand off between them until Greg's shout cut the tension between him and his new sparring partner.

Greg charges head on at Michael with a charged punch from his right nano mesh, but Michael easily was able to see it coming and evades it in time to counter with his Gunner Blow attack.

"Gunner Blow!" Michael shouted, hitting near the back of Greg's neck area a bit, causing him to stagger forwards. He stumbled as he was hit across his back, but managed in time to stand up right, showing that trademark grin on his face, despite the fact the attack Michael placed on him made him cough up some blood.

"Heh...you managed to land the first blow." Greg said, wiping his chin. "Lucky you...but I doubt you will be able to deal with this! God's Hammer!'"

"What the…!" Michael looked on as Greg lifted his leg to perform an axe kick, but he never expected that as simple Greg made it look, it came down hard and heavy on Michael as he even deflected it in time.

"That's not all!" Greg said, as after seeing his kick was blocked, he then lifted his body to spin his leg, which he was using to stand on, and proceeded to kick Michael while he was blocking from Greg's God's Hammer. As Greg did this, he suddenly used both his hands to perform a handstand as he fell and rolled backwards away from Michael, who was a bit stunned by Greg's kick to the left of his lower abdomen.

"So, how did you like that?" Greg asked, getting up from one knee and staring at Michael. He was starting to enjoy the fight, but he has yet to show his real stuff.

"Impressive, I must say, Greg. Quite impressive…I take it that your style is based of taking advantage of an opponent's open points, am I correct?" Michael asked coolly.

"Damn straight." Greg replied. "I don't like to waste time in a fight unless my enemy is a formidable fighter like I heard you're supposed to be."

"Allow me to prove that to you then." Michael simply said, suddenly charging Greg before he recognized that Michael was on him almost too late, as he simply started to lift his arms in time to deflect two of Michael's punches, before he send a roundhouse kick that Greg didn't detect in time to defend or evade from. After receiving a brutal kick to his sides that pushed him a few feet from Michael's position, Greg merely stopped his footing and rushed his new sparring partner with his set of signature attacks.

"Panther Claw!" Greg shouted, throwing his clenched, right nano mesh arm in a side blow at Michael. But, Michael just by a mere fraction, evaded Greg's Panther Claw and then uses his Sliding Blade technique, which Greg had a good chance of evading in time before getting hit. Seeing an opening, Greg decided to mix up his attacks once more.

"Too easy! God's Hammer!" Greg shouted once more, executing his powerful drop kick, but Michael was already out of the way his kick was coming, only to see Greg spinning around in time, ready to perform another attack.

"Judgement Kick!" Greg shouted, as he started another one of his kick attacks, but Michael was on his feet and was able catch him with his Vulcan drop technique, dropping a serious weight on Greg's body.

"Gaah!" Greg screamed aloud, feeling the pain he was getting from Michael's attacks. Michael didn't want to be so hard on Greg, but he had to show him that he was not just another man to be taken lightly in FOXHOUND, particularly in the battle areas.

"Sorry I have to do this to you, Greg…Vengeance!" Michael shouted, as after Greg was juggled from the ground after the Vulcan Drop, and using his Heidern style techniques, comes down on Greg with a 'V' type slash on his body, creating a small combustion that exploded across Greg's chest area.

"Nnnnnngggghhh!" Greg shouted feeling as if his body was on fire, but the sensation lasted only lasted for a few seconds as Greg was still feeling the painful sting about his body. He lay defeated on the floor for only a brief moment, and to Michael's surprise, Greg simply got on one knee to catch his breath, having only suffered from some minor burns about his body which could be healed using FOXHOUND's nanomachines.

Michael was impressed by the younger man's ability and his brash level of confidence, which was no less then what he expected from someone who studied under Kyo, Iori, Geese and also one Aika Sumeragi. Michael has finally confirmed his curiosity about the young man before him and offered a hand for Greg to stand upright.

"Hey, you'll be okay?" Michael asked, with his hand outstretched to Greg. The young dark male looked up and grabbed it in the form of a handshake and stood up, still grimacing in pain.

"Yeah, I'll be just fine. That was one hell of a move you pulled on me." Greg replied, still clutching his chest. "I kind of gotten a bit sidetracked back there and you took advantage of the opening, didn't you?"

"You sound like a fast thinker in combat, but you really don't consider how the opponent can take advantage of your brashness." Michael said to Greg. "That could prove a mistake if you depend on attitude alone to win a battle."

""Are you saying I should be rational from now on?" Greg replied.

"That's right." Michael said, patting Greg's shoulder.

"That sounds like an excuse for taking away the fun from the battle if you think too much in a fight." Greg simply spoke.

"That kind of thinking you have is no good in a battle, no matter if it's a spar or in an actual war zone. You will only be placing yourself and those around you in even more danger if you don't get a clear head and focus on the situation in front of you. The only things that count in a battle like this are to survive and win, but to get over your head with how you progress in a battle."

"Che…I'll remember to keep that in mind then." Greg replied, taking up his jacket and resting it on his left shoulder. "I'd better get to infirmary before the burns get worse."

"Need my help take you there?" Michael offered.

"Thanks, but I'm covered." Greg answered in a confident grin, all the while bearing the pain. "I really enjoyed the fight, we should do this more often."

"I'm looking forward to a rematch then, Greg. I'll be seeing you around." Michael said, as the door closed in front of him. (He's still young, so I can understand that he's still inexperienced in some areas, but he shows a lot of capability and promise. I will take my time to teach what I know about battles to him if he wants to be as good as me and Garland.)

From the other side of the door, Greg was leaning against it, thinking of what just transpired. Looking at the unusual substance that covered his right wrist, Greg simply smirked as he thought of Michaels' words of advice to him.

(Be rational from now on, huh?) Greg thought. (I guess it wouldn't hurt to do it at least ONCE in a lifetime. Besides, the last thing I want to do is get sensei Rio upset because I went against her teachings because of Michael's advice…)

Before Greg can finish thinking, his Codec rang and the frequency was surely Team WARRIOR's.

"I guess I should get to my quarters and tend to my wounds and answer this call when no one's around. I do hope Rio won't overreact when I tell her I got my ass kicked again by another vet in FOXHOUND…" Greg said, as he left the VR training area. Along the way, he met Linn, who suddenly saw the bruises and cuts he got from his spar with Michael.

"Greg? What happened to you?" Linn asked, approaching her partner.

"Got into a spar with that new tactician and lost, that's what." Greg replied.

"You really shouldn't be stirring up this kind of trouble for your amusement, you know. Serves you right."

"How cruel you are." Greg smirked, only to grimace when the pain in his body stung him one more time.

"Let me take you to the infirmary then, you big baby." Linn simply smiled and linked her arm over him and helped him walk to the infirmary. As they did, Greg and Linn shared their own thoughts about both of their meetings with Michael, whom they both find was such a more of a modest character than they originally thought.

"You know…he's not so bad once you get to know him." Greg said. "A little too bit on the serious side, if you ask me, but still a cool guy to hang around with…"

"Yeah, I agree on both counts." Linn replied. "Still…I can't help but feel sorry for all the stuff I heard he's been through."

"True, I sensed he went through a hell of a lot before we even joined FOXHOUND. I didn't have to use my powers then, he just…radiated that feeling you know?" Greg said. "A man with that amount of experience is not to be taken lightly so easily. We better be watchful of him from now on...he could bring good fortune in this team, aside from old man Reese."

"I hoping for the same thing too, Greg." Linn said, with a nod.

Subchapter 7 – Little Scorpion 

Michael was on his way to the library when he heard the sounds of someone practicing in the training room. Since all the other FOXHOUNDers he had met were either out on missions or on leave today, this was likely someone he hadn't met before.

Michael then entered the training room and saw that the occupant was a young boy practicing with combat knives. From the looks of how he was using the blades, the boy obviously had training and Michael wondered if he was a child soldier. Michael remembered fighting child soldiers on a few campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Michael watched the boy until he was done training with his knives, and followed the boy as he moved on to the shooting range part of the training hall.

"Excellent attitude to training your CQC skills are good and you are excellent with a knife." Michael spoke to complement the boy, but the young sniper said nothing Michael could see that the young boy was obviously the quiet type. "What's your name kid?"

"Silent Scorpion." Came a muttered reply.

"I asked for your real name." Michael replied.

"It's James Masterson." The boy replied.

_(Hmmm, I remember that Heidern once told me about a Victor Masterson, could this boy…?)_ Then Michael disconnected this train of thought and spoke. "I'm Michael Hansen my code name is Venom."

"I see…so I suppose that make us colleagues." James noted. "I'd shake your hand but I'm a little busy right now."

"No problem, I understand." Michael nodded.

"I'm curious, your skills look very fine tuned for someone at your age." Michael said. "I was wondering…"

"Did I get these skills because I was a child soldier?" James finished, turning to face Michael. "Yes." The boy then studied Michael to see his reaction. "You don't seem to be surprised…most of the recruits I've met usually are, but then again most of them are people fresh out of the academy. So I guess that means you're a veteran."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Michael nodded. "I've also had experiences with fighting either alongside child soldiers as well as against them."

"Yes, it's more common than most people believe." James said. "So what was one of your experiences?"

Michael then went onto the story. "It was an operation in the Middle East; we were on a rescue mission, and it was a tough operation to say the least, but not all of the terrorists we fought were adults…they were children, their ages ranged from 9 to 17 generally those who are old enough to carry a gun. It was when we went in that we fought them in combat, it was bad and I have to admit I had mixed feelings about shooting kids, but if I didn't defend myself I would die and also those people we had to rescue were counting on us. There is one in particular I recall he had an automatic rifle aimed at one of the people we were supposed to rescue…I had to act immediately so I shot him…"

"You were doing what you had to do." James shrugged.

Michael nodded said "Anyway that's enough you've definitely got talent James, how good are your hand to hand skills?"

"I can use a knife in close quarters combat." James replied. "It was pointed out to me that over reliance on weapons can be a crutch."

"Precisely, such points were made to me before I even became a soldier…" Michael said thinking on his sensei Yukimura's teachings and what he said _'Don't rely on a weapon too much…'_ then Michael said "I always try to keep myself as well rounded as possible even though my specialty are strategy and tactics. Using the same stuff over and over like a pattern will eventually lead to the enemy discovering a weakness."

"And weakness in battle is death." James finished, and Michael nodded. It was barely noticeable to Michael, but he suddenly saw James' lips seem to move just slightly in what might have been a smile.

"You're not so bad, Michael." James spoke. "I think we'll get along just fine."

"I should hope so." Michael smiled in reply suddenly his eyes caught something. There were a series of many small scars on James' right arm.

"I assume that you've just noticed and you're curious as to how I got all of these on my arm." James spoke calmly as he indicated the scars on his arm.

"Well, if it's a sensitive subject for you…" Michael began.

"I'm afraid there aren't very many things that I'm sensitive about, and just to let you know this isn't one of them." James replied. "I'm not sure if I can put this into words right though, so maybe it would be best if you wait since you'll know why I have these scars soon enough."

"Alright." Michael nodded.

(But still…that look in James' eyes when he was talking just now. I know it all too well.) Michael thought to himself. (Those are the eyes of someone whose only true home, the only place he can truly find his existence, is the battlefield. I just hope something can prevent James from becoming like that forever, it's too sad a fate…)


	7. Another Assignment for you Venom

**Venom Coursing**

**Disclaimers**: Same as before I do not own Evangelion or for that matter the character of Mana Kirishima from the Evangelion game Girlfriend of Steel.

**Chapter 7 – Another assignment for you Venom**

It had been over 2 months since Michael, Garland, Greg, Linn, Riku, and James had last worked as a team and after what happened in the aftermath of the mission, Michael was not sure if he really trusted Campbell as he felt that the colonel had really overstepped himself in dealing with Garland.

Aside from that, Michael was able to get along with practically everyone in FOXHOUND, but there was one recruit that really got on Michael's nerves. A young Chinese recruit by the name of Han Zu Kang, whom Michael soon found many of his fellow recruits disliked and with good reason. As soon as he met him, Michael found that the boy was an arrogant ass whose lectures about individualism were annoying to say the least and best tuned out. Another factor in this particular recruit's behaviour that Michael disapproved of was how obvious it was that Han Zu didn't care anything at all about his comrades. This was especially shown in Han Zu's last assignment in which he got an operative named Carlos Santiago killed simply because it would contradict an order given by Reese.

Michael still remembered that exchange he had afterwards, after Michael harshly rebuked him, Han Zu tried countering by giving one of his lectures when Michael silenced him with a harsh glare and said to him "You tell all that to his family."

Michael still remembered how Carlos had a wife and two young children and had taken it upon himself to write the letter to his family, but what disgusted Michael the most was that neither Reese nor Han Zu were disciplined for the incident especially since the mission could have easily been completed without Santiago having to die at all.

Michael sighed as he suddenly found himself comparing Han Zu to Campbell, part of him wanted to think that was a ridiculous comparison, that Campbell could be counted on as a leader, but there was a part of him that knew better especially at the fact that Campbell never ever punished Reese for any offences he committed they varied from dereliction of duty, gross incompetence…the list went on and on and Campbell never punished him for any of them.

Nevertheless Michael tried to be confident in Campbell's leadership, but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a call from one of the FOXHOUND technicians to report to the briefing room for a mission.

FOXHOUND Briefing Room:

Michael, Garland, and Maggie were standing in the briefing room, as Lieutenant Matthew Reese briefed them on the situation. The three weren't all that happy at having the lieutenant in command of the operation, but there wasn't much choice as Roy Campbell was currently overseeing a different FOXHOUND mission.

"Your mission is to take out a group of terrorists at this warehouse." Reese spoke as he gestured to a marked area on a map. "According to our information, these terrorists have had special forces training and are connected to an arms smuggling operation."

"Alright, we know the objective, now what about the man power our enemies have?" Michael asked.

"Nothing you lot can't handle, I'm sure." Reese answered simply. "Now with that out of the way…"

"Now hold on, I'd like to hear some actual figures first." Michael said. "Even an estimation would be useful."

"This terrorist cell is a small one, according to reports." Reese replied smugly. "I'm sure it's something any 'competent' soldiers can handle."

"Hey, even small groups can be dangerous." Garland spoke. "We're a small group too you know."

"That's why I'm going to be adding another member to your team for this mission." Reese replied, and then suddenly there was a knock at the room's door. "That should be him now. Kang, you may come in."

The door opened and Han Zu Kang entered.

"I've decided adding Kang to your team should help insure the success of the mission and that nothing else goes wrong." Reese said.

"Lieutenant, I'm afraid I have to object." Michael spoke. "Adding in a new team member at the last minute like this…"

"I can assure you that I can perform a mission at least as well as you can." Han Zu spoke arrogantly. "If anything, I also intend to make sure that all orders are carried out, unlike some recruits…"

Under other circumstances, Michael would have had a sharp retort to that obvious insult to him and his fellow recruits, however he knew there wasn't any time for this. He then looked and saw that from the looks on both Maggie and Garland's faces, they did not want to have someone like Han Zu on their team. Michael was about to voice some more objections, but Reese, probably sensing this, spoke first.

"Regardless of your objections, Kang will be included in this mission." Reese said firmly. "That is all, now get your equipment and be ready to move out."

Hours Later:

Almost from the very start, the mission had gone badly due to Han Zu going in before any of them could thoroughly survey the place and find out the enemy's position. Also because of Reese's bad intelligence, it turned out that there were a lot more men in the terrorist cell than just a few.

As a result of both of these, the group had been forced to fight against a large number of well trained former soldiers. The fighting dragged on for hours in a series of fierce gunfights, which afterwards it seemed like a miracle that none of the group had been killed.

Finally, after the last of the terrorist unit had been eliminated, Michael and Garland were attempting to find both Han Zu and Maggie from who they got separated. Both men were carefully searching the area, as well as the bodies of the dead, for their missing companions, when suddenly they heard a gun shot echo further down. The two immediately ran in that direction until they came to a stairway that led up to a steel platform overlooking some active machinery, and ran up them, their guns drawn and ready. What they saw was the last thing either of them expected.

Maggie was lying on the floor of the platform, clutching an injury to her arm, and Han Zu was standing in front of her, a handgun pointed at her head. Smoke coming from out of the gun clearly indicating that Han Zu had used the gun to shoot Maggie.

"You will obey your orders." Han Zu said coldly.

But before Maggie could respond both noticed Michael and Garland, both men now had their guns pointed at Han Zu.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Michael asked, his tone of voice filled with rage at what he saw.

"For your sake this had better be a misunderstanding." Garland said angrily, he looked almost like he was ready to go berserk any second.

"Eden has chosen not to follow the orders we were given." Han Zu answered simply. "I'm merely seeing to it that orders are followed, and those that do not follow orders must be dealt with accordingly."

"There's going to be one operative dealt with accordingly." Garland spoke threateningly. "That is if he doesn't lower his weapon now…"

"I see…" Han Zu said and then proceeded to lower his gun, but suddenly made a sudden and quick twist around in their direction, bringing his gun back up. "It seems you're the same as all the rest!"

"Bad move." Michael said, as he and Garland had both anticipated this.

Before Han Zu could even aim at either Michael or Garland, both men pulled the triggers for their guns and shot Han Zu at the same time, the force of the combined impacts of the bullets sending him hurtling into the gears of the active machinery and the last thing they ever heard of the treacherous Chinese recruit was a sharp and agonized scream followed by a loud and wet crunch of bones and flesh as his corpse was crushed in the gears of the machine.

Paying no further heed, to Han Zu's fate, Michael and Garland quickly ran over to their injured comrade.

"Maggie?" Garland asked with concern in his voice as he helped her up.

"Don't worry about it, its just a minor wound." Maggie reassured him with a smile, despite the pain from the wound.

"Minor or not, you're still wounded." Garland reminded her.

"Worried about me?" Maggie asked with a smile.

"Well…yeah, of course." Garland answered.

They both then smiled at each other and then Michael cut in looking serious.

"I hate to break this up, but we have to get out of here." He said seriously. "Just before we went looking for you, Garland and I planted some explosives and I already lured the rest of the enemy in, so they'll be here in a minute. We've managed to find another escape route, though."

"What should we do about…" Maggie gestured at where Han Zu had met his demise.

"A recovery team will take care of that." Michael replied.

"As far as I'm concerned, if Reese has any problem with it, he can go and scrape what's left of his favourite recruit out of that machine himself." Garland said grimly.

"Actually, since we're going to blow this place up, there probably won't be very much left to scrape out." Michael spoke. "Anyway let's get going now."

"Well then, let's go." Maggie said, and with that, they headed towards a window, where Michael launched a cable out through it and secured the line. They then slid down on it on the roof of a dockside office, where Michael looked in as the rest of the terrorists entered the warehouse using his binoculars. When he was sure all the terrorists had gone inside, he detonated the C4…

Michael, Garland, and Maggie stood in Campbell's Office as they finished their report to both Campbell and Reese. They had already gave a full report of what had happened during the mission, and they even told them about what happened to Han Zu.

"…And that's what happened, Colonel." Michael concluded for his comrades

"So you admit you not only disobeyed direct orders , but you also murdered a fellow operative?" Reese shouted.

"Murder? No it wasn't; we were simply defending our comrade." Michael replied coldly. "Something I don't expect someone like you to understand."

"How dare you!" Reese shouted in outrage.

"That's enough!" Campbell cut in, turning to Michael. "Venom, while it's true that you were defending Eden, you still disobeyed orders and therefore…"

They were interrupted as the door slammed open and the figure of General Drake came in.

"Hold it right there!" Drake said, a firm and serious expression on his face.

"General Drake, sir!" Campbell began, getting up to salute, as did Reese. "Currently we are…"

"I am well aware of what happened." Drake replied, cutting him off. "Now I would like to hear how you plan to deal with this. But I sincerely hope you are not planning to punish these three."

"But sir, regardless of what happened they still disobeyed orders." Campbell tried to explain.

"Orders which would have gotten them killed, I personally find no reason for disciplinary action here." The look on Drake's face was one of obvious disappointment. "I therefore clear them of any wrong doing in this matter. Are there any objections, Colonel?"

"No sir." Campbell replied simply.

"Any from you Lieutenant?" Drake turned to Reese.

"No sir." Reese replied quickly, though it sounded quite forced.

"Good, Venom, Beserker Demon and Dark Eden you may go now, also you may go Lt. Reese." Drake dismissed them. "Colonel, I would like a word with you."

Michael, Garland, and Maggie nodded and then left the room. Reese then grumbled something under his breath before departing as well.

When they were gone Drake turned to Campbell with a glare.

"Have I not made myself clear about how I expected you to do your job when you took command of FOXHOUND again. Roy?" He asked.

"Sir, I am carrying out my duties to the best of my ability and I feel rules should be enforced." Roy answered.

"I don't give a damn! In case you haven't realized it by now, those operatives would have been killed if they obeyed those orders!" Drake said with harshness in his voice. "While it is important that rules be obeyed, there are limits for God's sake! And on that note I hope for both your sake and the sake of your career that you won't repeat that incident two months ago in the aftermath of that mission where those recruits worked as a team for the first time."

"But sir, Durev disobeyed orders, direct orders from high command." Campbell began. "There wasn't any…"

"Which you should have contacted me about." Drake interrupted him. "I should have been the one to decide and I will remind you that anything concerning high command is my business. What you should have done was in the very least contacted me, instead you made no report at all. In fact, I only found out about that incident three days ago! Why, pray tell, was I not informed sooner?"

"I just filed the report as standard procedure." Campbell answered him. "I apologize for not reporting about the said incident but there were other priorities at the time."

"That has got to be…" Drake sighed and shook his head. "Let me make this perfectly clear to you, colonel. If you keep screwing up like this, I will find someone more qualified to command this group. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." Campbell replied.

"Good." Drake said simply and then turned to leave.

Campbell sighed wearily as Drake left his office.

It had been a few days since that mission and Campbell just announced a funeral and from what Michael had determined no one was coming. Which was hardly surprising.

Riku, who wasn't going to the funeral either, had his own comments of a way to pay tribute to the deceased recruit.

"I have a bit of an idea as to flowers to send to the funeral." Riku said. "There's a certain weed I know of that stinks to high heaven. That should be appropriate, right?"

Michael found he couldn't argue with him on that point, in fact no one did not even Campbell.

Michael didn't all together find Riku's idea surprising, since the young ninja had despised Han Zu ever since he had been recruited, and the Chinese recruit had hated the ninja just as much. Riku had even started a physical fight with Han Zu when he found out about Han Zu's being responsible for Carlos Santiago's death, as the young ninja had been a friend of the man and was saddened by his death. That was one fight between recruits that practically everyone in FOXHOUND was reluctant to break up.

A Few Days Later:

Colonel Campbell rolled his eyes at the sight he was seeing at the funeral he had to arrange on his own, one because Han Zu's brother refused to take the body (or what was left of it) and the man's response was something along the lines 'keep him and do whatever the hell you want', and two, because FOXHOUND had to pay for the funeral since Han Zu had died practically broke, and his brother also refused to pay as much as a cent for the funeral.

(Looks like the boy wasn't popular even with his next of kin.) Campbell thought to himself as he looked around, he'd seen some pathetic sights in his day but this was among them no one but him attended the funeral and the truth was he only came as some kind of courtesy.

But Campbell couldn't blame them for it. When he first heard about Kang's attitudes he tried to tell himself that the kid was only trying to be a good soldier, but in the end Campbell just knew better and there was no excuse for what he had done.

A thought that reminded him to have words Reese when he got back to FOXHOUND HQ. After the procession ended, and rather quickly at that, Roy decided to head back to headquarters now…

Two Weeks Later:

It had been two weeks since the occurrence of the incident, and both Garland and Maggie had been given new assignments. Now Michael was about be given his own.

"Venom reporting." Michael spoke as he entered Campbell's office and sat down.

"Venom, your next assignment is in Japan." Campbell said as he handed Michael a file containing some papers. "Actually, you assignment is more of an investigation than your typical mission."

"I see…" Michael spoke as he opened the file and began to read the contents. He then looked up towards Campbell. "Could you fill me in some more on the details of the assignment?"

"Of course." Campbell nodded and began to explain the details of Michael's next mission

Meanwhile: Somewhere in Japan:

At an unknown building a tall, middle aged man regarded a maroon haired young girl, who looked to be in her teens. The man in front of her was tall, in his early forties with a moustache and a beard and he was wearing a finely tailored suit.

"Mana, I have an assignment for you." The man said coldly. "I trust that you will carry it out to the best of your abilities."

"Yes, uncle." The young girl, Mana Kirishima, said to the man who stood before her, who was the director of this agency and her uncle Tomoyuki Kirishima.


	8. A Few Meetings Today

**Venom Coursing**

**Author's Notes**: The Second arc of Venom Coursing continues, special thanks goes out to Tempest Dynasty for helping to provide me medical insight as well as insight into weapons. I also must thank him for editing this for me.

**Chapter 8 – A Few meetings today**

Michael sighed heavily. Today was a big waste of time; his mission was to find three missing FOXHOUND operatives: Nathan Cole, Angela Nelson and John Barton. All three had disappeared after reporting their successful mission and had not been heard from in two weeks.

Michael decided any further searching today was fruitless as he placed his hands in his trench coat. He then realised something and decided to take this opportunity to visit someone he had not seen in a while.

As he walked, Michael thought about the first time he met Yukimura

A young boy sat sobbing in a street. His father had again beaten him for reasons he couldn't understand; the man ranted about him going to Hell and about God.

"What's wrong?" asked a warm voice.

The boy looked up and saw a tall man; he had greyish black hair and greyish blue eyes, which contained warmth and concern in them. The man was dressed in a coat and jeans. When he saw how cold Michael was, he put his coat on the boy.

"Where are your parents?"

"Daddy he…he…"

"Come on. I'd better get you somewhere. What's your name?"

"Michael…Michael Hansen…" there was something about the man that made the boy want to trust him.

"I'm…Genjiro…Genjiro Sanada."

Michael headed towards an all too familiar place—he had lived here since he was six. He left at sixteen to join the U.S. Army and was later accepted for Special Forces training. It was an old dojo, with a few modern conveniences (the owner liked to keep it as close to the original as possible). Simple, modest, and rather traditional, it was a physical representation of certain martial beliefs.

He was about to head to the door when he suddenly he looked around and saw a tall man with long greyish-black hair and greyish blue eyes. The man looked to be in his twenties wearing a simple, well-worn kimono.

"Hello Yukimura-sensei," Michael greeted the man warmly.

"Michael!" Yukimura responded and they both embraced. "How have you been Michael?"

"I've been fine."

"Come on inside, please."

They were already catching up on times as they walked into the building.

No one would have guessed that Yukimura was actually over 440 years old and was even a legendary samurai warrior. It was the one battle he was particularly famous and made into a legend. He never liked to talk about it.

They talked as Yukimura served him some tea catching up on old times but then the subject came to Maria.

"I'm sorry Michael I've only heard about Maria's death recently."

"That's alright."

"So anyway…I hear you're working for FOXHOUND these days."

"How did you…?" Michael was taken aback. How could have he known already?

"Oh come on, Michael, you should know by now," laughed Yukimura and they simply spent the day catching up…

Yukimura sighed tiredly. It had been an hour since Michael left and he remembered how he had come into his care: he was on his way back to his hotel room having left the graveyard when he found Michael first…

Yukimura had not heard from Michael in days and was beginning to worry. When he approached the Hansen house, he heard a scream and shouting. Immediately he sprinted through the yard and through the yawning front door. Yukimura rushed into a hallway and saw Wilhelm Hansen banging his shoulder against a door wielding a knife in one hand.

"Get out of there you worthless good for nothing! You're nothing but a blight! Worthless! You would hang with devils! You fucking deserve to die! You deserve to be-"

The man did not get a chance to continue his rant as he harshly thrown away from the door and was subjected to a harsh glare from Yukimura.

"You! You would use your religion as an excuse for THIS?" Yukimura was outraged. He was old enough to remember a time where Christians committed atrocities during the time of Nobunaga Oda, when they used religion as an excuse to terrorise and persecute people and sow their hate of each other.

Wilhelm tried to attack Yukimura with a knife, stabbing sloppily at the Japanese man. Yukimura reacted quickly, kicking the weapon out of the fanatic's hand and sending it into the ceiling. He then landed a vicious blow to the man's jaw. Stumbling, Wilhelm ran out the door, but Yukimura decided to leave him as his main concern was for Michael. He knocked on the locked door worriedly.

"Michael!" he called to the boy between knocks. "Michael! It's me! Open up!"

After a minute, the door slowly creaked open and revealed a frightened young boy, tired and his face streaked with tears. Yukimura placed his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"Michael," Yukimura began soothingly. "Are you alright?"

"I…I…" Michael began but the boy collapsed into Yukimura's shirt, wrapping his arms around him and sobbing loudly.

"It's alright Michael." Yukimura said gently embracing the child "You're going to be alright…"

Since then Yukimura took Michael into his custody and taught the boy Sanada martial arts. The 444-year-old samurai honed and learned the art for over centuries, first learning Jiujutsu and Kenjutsu. He adopted other styles over the centuries, including Kenpo, Karate, and Aikido. It was a year later he told the boy of his real name.

Michael was a great student the boy learned well, adjusting to new styles and training very quickly. Yukimura had the privilige of meeting General Heidern; the soldier became Michael's second martial arts teacher. This was how Michael learned to combined both Sanada style martial arts and Heidern assassination techniques into a formidable style. Yukimura was always proud of Michael's progress.

Mana Kirishima staggered along a blurry path, still clutching a MO Disk. Her mission had gone wrong; her back up got careless and failed to finish off a spy. The spy had shot the backup in the back and her in the stomach. She did not think the bullet hit any vital organs, and fortunately the spy died before he could fire another shot.

Mana resisted pain as she was trained to do, but soon she fell to her knees, blood still pouring out of that wound.

Michael was close to his hotel room when he heard a noise he saw a trial of blood cautiously he kept his hand on his Colt Delta Elite, ready to draw as he followed the trail. He then noticed a young maroon-haired girl of about ten or eleven years old, clutching at a gunshot wound.

The soldier immediately rushed to the girl and assessed her condition: she was losing a lot of blood from the gunshot wound. His mind wondered if the bullet hit any organs, but he couldn't take the risk of extracting it himself. He went for a nearby payphone and called the Emergency Services.

"There's a little girl—she's been shot with a semi-automatic pistol! It looks like she's lost a fair amount of blood and I don't know if the bullet hit any vital organs," Michael then gave the operator the location, heard the confirmation, and quickly returned to the girl.

The girl groaned and looked up at Michael with teary eyes. He knew she needed medical treatment as soon as possible and she looked incoherent. Michael rushed back to his car to grab his first aid kit, making record time returning. He found a box and very gently propped her legs, then took a bandage out and pulling the girl's shirt up slowly. Then he carefully applied the bandage, keeping it tight but not constricting. Touching the girl's face, Michael found that she was terribly cold. Shock was quickly setting in and she needed to be kept warm. Pulling a mylar blanket from the kit, he gently wrapped the girl in it.

Next to the girl he found an MO disk. Suspicious, he quickly picked it up and stuffed it into his jacket. Just then he heard an ambulance approach. He ran to the edge of the alley, pressing himself against a wall covered in shadows. But he had to make sure the paramedics found the girl.

"Over here!" yelled Michael as he temporarily broke his position then returned, peeking over the edge as paramedics rushed in andfound Mana. Michael knew this was his cue to leave as he was still on a mission and must maintain a low profile. That thought in mind, he left the scene as quickly as possible.

Tomoyuki Kirishima was in his office when his phone rang he promptly picked up the phone,

"Yes?"

"Mr Kirishima, your niece has just been brought in. She's been shot in the abdomen. She is in critical but stable as the bullet missed vital organs. You should come immediately to see her."

"Indeed…" Kirishima replied as he noted down the name of the hospital "Thank you."

Kirishima then hung up and thought hard on his next course of action. He knew that Tagawa was found dead. That fool got so careless that he got shot in the back of the head! And what about the disk? Did Mana have it?

"Agents Kuromoto, Hitachi, and Yamagawa, report to my office immediately."

Five minutes later the three agents arrived, Kirishima acknowledged them with a mere nod

"There was an bungled operation due to Agent Tagawa's carelessness. He is dead, and Agent Kirishima has been wounded. Their mission was to kill a spy and retrieve tan MO Disk containing dangerous information. In the wrong hands, it could ruin us. Agent Kirishima is still alive; I found about this a few minutes ago and I know the location of the hospital. Your orders are to question her about the disk and once you are done questioning…terminate her."

Michael was now back in his hotel room. Fortunately the police had not noticed him as he left. He would have stayed with the girl, but he was on a mission and needed to keep a low profile. The last thing he needed were questions from either hospital staff or from the police.

He sat down in front of a laptop he kept then inserted the MO disk. After an hour of effort and hacking he managed to figure out the password, thanks to a hacking program designed by Mei Ling. What he saw disturbed him greatly.

It was a list of names with various designations. They included subject, controller or hunter. He also saw a host of methods of brainwashing someone. He went through the rest but was in for a shock. Michael saw the names of the operatives he was looking for but these were termination orders for all three of them. Even worse, they had used Angela to carry them out! Brainwashed, she killed her partners then promptly terminated by agents of some organisation called Muchitsujo. From the information available, it looked like some kind of special agency, one of many that were created during the Cold War.

Michael wondered why the girl would have this, but then a thought struck him. What if the girl was in danger? Thinking carefully, he knew the paramedics would take her to the nearest hospital with a trauma centre. He had to research carefully but quickly.

Michael arrived at the hospital that best matched the criteria. He went to the lobby and walked up to the receptionist.

"Excuse me, is there a 11 year old girl here?" Michael asked then gave a description of the girl.

"Ah yes, Mana Kirishima? She's in critical but stable condition, and she's resting now."

"That's good news. May I see her?"

"What's your name and relation to the patient?"

"Michael Hansen. I'm her godfather," Michael replied, hoping that the excuse would pass.

"Very well Mr. Hansen." The receptionist handed Michael a visitor's pass "She's in the intensive care ward room 14. There are three police detectives interviewing her. They may ask you questions, just to warn you."

"Detectives?"

"Yes they came in a couple of minutes before you."

"Thank you."

Michael headed into the corridor then made his way to the room the receptionist directed him to. Michael felt suspicious of these 'detectives.' They could be real, but they could also be impostors. Either way, he needed to tread carefully and get the girl to a safer place.

He quickly found the room and suddenly found himself flanked by two men in black business suits. One was pointing a Beretta at him and the other had his gun off to the side. Both the weapons had suppressors and this right away told him that these men were certainly not police officers.

"Who are you?" demanded one of the men.

Michael did not answer and quickly sized up the situation as the men came closer. He struck quickly, grabbing the arm of the closest man and threw him to the ground. Before his partner could fire, Michael kicked him in the stomach and knocked the gun out of his hand with a second kick. The other man's gun was kicked away as well, and as the first man tried to stand, Michael rushed in to catch him in the jaw with a rising kick. An axe kick then crashed down on the man's back, dropping in him once again. Reacting instinctive, Michael ducked, avoiding a wild punch aimed for his head. The FOXHOUNDer's retaliation came in the form of a low sweep kick, knocking his opponent down. Moving with the momentum, a second aerial spinning kick lashed out to strike the falling man. Michael then took this time to move into the room and silently congratulates himself for successfully emulating one of his friend's techniques.

As the two men were stunned, Michael readied a ceramic knife he had tucked away in his pants. Alarm filled his being as he noticed the third of the suited men aimed a pistol it at the girl. Michael wasted no time and threw his knife, hitting the man in the throat, slicing through the carotid artery. The result was a panicky would-be hitman screaming and struggling with a blade lodged in his throat. His final act was to shoot a round into the ceiling, most certainly alerting the entire building of trouble.

Michael retreived his knife then looked at the girl who regarded with obvious and frightened suspicion. He would have to act quickly, as the men were quickly coming around and the hospital had most likely reacted to the scream and gunshot.

"If you want to live come with me." Michael said to her, his eyes bearing straight into her own.

The girl Mana slowly nodded at Michael. The soldier looked around; carrying her would be risky even if he were careful. Fortunately, he saw a wheelchair in the corner of the room. Helping the girl into the wheelchair, he wheeled her out into the hall, keeping to the less-travelled paths and avoiding large crowds. The panic caused by the gunshot might keep attention off him…

Tomoyuki Kirishima received a call on the phone,

"Yes?"

"Sir. It's Kuromoto something went wrong," the man's voice sounded pained.

"What do you mean? This was a simple operation."

"It was complicated, Yamagawa's dead."

"What happened?"

"Someone came in. He looked suspicious so Hitachi and I approached him. He took us by surprise—knocked us both out. Then he entered Agent Kirishima's room and killed Yamagawa."

"And?"

"I believe he's some kind of operative or former operative. He obviously has extensive training and is likely a seasoned field man. I'm not too sure."

"Describe him."

"He was a foreign man in his thirties, he looked European but had a slight Asian look to him."

"Did the hospital staff find Yamagawa's body?"

"No, sir. We were able to remove him without being seen."

"Good. Return immediately." Kirishima ordered as he replaced the phone into the cradle. He had to find the man and Mana as soon as possible.

Michael drove back to the hotel room, Mana resting in the passenger seat. He brought Mana in through a back entrance, to his hotel room, finally to the bedroom. He noticed her wincing and gasping in pain and remembered that she had been off the drip for a bit now, and she was now feeling the pain. A quick rife through his soldier's medkit revealed several emergency syringes of morphine.

"Your name is Mana right?" Michael asked but the girl did not answer. The veteran soldier sighed; he knew the girl wouldn't trust him right away despite the fact he saved her life.

Michael got the morphine ready for injection then looking into the young girl's suspicious eyes he spoke seriously,

"I'm not going to hurt you, I wish to help you."

Mana nodded though she still looked suspicious. She didn't put up any resistance as Michael helped her into the bed and injected the morphine. He went out to the living room and reclined into a chair. This was obviously big and Michael knew he couldn't handle it alone. Tapping his Codec on, he made the call and hoped it wasn't Reese.

Fortunately, Campbell answered the call.

"Colonel. I've found some information on the missing FOXHOUND operatives…" Michael then laid it all out, him finding Mana, the MO Disk and its contents. "So that's it, Colonel. This looks pretty nasty and it doesn't look we're dealing with terrorists. They've brainwashed them into working for them. I believe I will need some backup for this one."

"I see." Campbell replied "I can spare Berserker Demon and Dark Eden. They are both in Japan, I also will need that disk transported to us ASAP. I will send Black Cougar as a courier to get it back to us, understood?"

"I understand Colonel," Michael replied.

"Good. Cougar should be with you soon."

Michael sighed and he spent the next hour watching over the girl. It was another half an hour later that he felt someone nearby. Picking up his Colt, he went back into the living room and saw a familiar face, thus lowering his weapon.

"You're here earlier then I expected."

"I was in the area, the Colonel contacted me about the disk so I came here as quickly as possible," the person replied, brushing some dirt off his black uniform.

Michael knew the man as Trang Nguyen Han, a ninja master of the Iga Clan and a member of FOXHOUND, code named 'Black Cougar.' The man was Vietnamese but was adopted into the Iga Clan when he was six.

"I have it right here." Michael replied producing the MO Disk and handing it to Trang.

"Demon and Eden will join you soon, good luck Venom."

"You too."

With that Trang left and Michael was left alone with Mana.

It was two hours later that Michael heard a knock at the door. Picking up his Colt, he leaned himself against the door with his pistol ready. He peered through the peep hole and saw two familiar faces, killing off all the tension. Putting his gun away, he opened the door and welcomed two of his friends and coworkers, Garland Durev and Maggie Thompson.

"Why hello Garland, Maggie," Michael greeted them, inviting them inside.

"Campbell contacted us and he told us you needed back up," Garland was first to speak.

"That's right. How much did he tell you?"

"Not much he said you would brief us," Garland replied.

"Alright…" Michael began then he went through what has transpired so far.

"Unbelievable! Those bastards, they use anyone just to finish off their enemies!" Maggie seethed while Garland's normally calm and neutral face betrayed a small hint of disgust.

"That's right. They've been using people to perform assassinations and even use them to recruit in their organisation. The disk reveals that much."

"What about the girl?" asked Maggie.

"Mana's asleep right now, I'm unsure of how much the kid trusts me or for that matter, us, but by now I think she realises that being with us is a matter of self preservation," Michael said.

"But if she's been brainwashed…" Maggie began but Michael shook his head cutting her off.

"For some reason I don't think she's been brainwashed at all. She was probably recruited from an early age, like a child soldier," Michael theorised.

Maggie gasped but nodded knowingly; all three of them had engagements against child soldiers before.

"There are clues on the disk I noted a few of them down, we need to investigate. Maggie can you…?"

"Of course." Maggie replied.

"Thanks."

TBC


End file.
